Roman Holiday
by londonbella
Summary: They're certainly no Hepburn and Peck, but Alessia Kane happens to be a teenager desperate to see something other than the four walls of her room and Bellamy Blake provides her with an escape. After giving him an offer he can't refuse, they embark on an unapproved adventure full of new experiences, revelations, and most of all: fun. AU of Outside.
1. Introduction

**To all fans of _Outside_** ,

I've been writing for you all for a very, very long time. Truth be told, I started the story back in 2014, I was extremely weary. Normally when I write for another fandom besides The Vampire Diaries, it always ends up getting put on the chopping block for a variety of reasons: I'm bored, no one really pays attention to it, or I found myself criticizing it so much I get nervous and kick it off. I would be outright lying if I said that I never suspected it would happen with the story, because I genuinely thought that it would happen eventually from the second I put it up online. But I figured I'd give it a try.

Now, a little less than two years later, I find that Outside is one of my most popular stories (and it's not even close to being done!). I couldn't be more grateful to all of my fans that have stuck through my sadistic measures, as I've been told by my best friend that I apparently hate everyone because of all the shit I put you through with Bellamy and Alessia's struggles. It puts a smile on my face every time I see a review or a follow or a favorite come through, or even looking to see how many people have read my latest chapter. It is truly an honor and a privilege to be sharing Bellamy and Alessia's story with you all, and I couldn't be happier to publish this story for everyone today.

We've stuck through a lot of things together. I started Outside a little before things had gotten bad in my life, but despite that, you were all here for me and waited patiently for another chapter to be enjoyed. Then, there were several plagiarizers that wanted to steal my words, and every time there was, everyone had my back. For that, especially, I can't thank you enough.

Because I know myself and because I know how easily I am distracted by life, I went ahead and wrote all 10 chapters (including an epilogue) in advance before publishing this story...which is why it took me so long to get it up here. I didn't want to give everyone a token of my appreciation without making sure that I had all my ducks in a row. With AU stories, it's a little harder for me because I don't have a set cannon and when I end up only writing 2,000 words in a chapter, I get frustrated and call it a day. Therefore, I made sure that every word was written and I was satisfied with them all before sharing this.

So without further adieu, here is _**Roman Holiday**!_

* * *

 **IMPORTANT STORY INFORMATION**

 **Updating Schedule** (Biweekly): Following this update at an ungodly hour on Sunday, Roman Holiday will be updated **Fridays** at **9PM** **EST** barring one or two hiatuses that won't last for more than two weeks.

 _Author Content Disclaimer 1:_ Not that I think this is going to be an issue with you guys, but there are always trolls on the internet looking for something to criticize, and although this might be valid, that's why I'm telling you this in advance. There is a _lot_ of work that goes into the US Army and I will never claim to know and or pretend to know any and all of the details. I did as much research as I could with my resources on finding the ranks and procedures, but this is a story and I will never claim it to be up to realistic standards. I apologize if there are any mistakes that bother someone who reads this story, but I ask you to keep in mind that this is a fan fiction, I have a life, and although I am the daughter of a veteran, I am not an expert on the US Army. If there is an issue that you think may be able to be corrected (something small like a rank issue or a term not being used correctly), please PM me with your concern and I will be sure to get back to you.

 _Author Content Disclaimer 2:_ Although this story is not rated M because I do _not_ want to give off the impression that I am writing certain scenes that are associated with M-rated fan fiction, this story has a very high T-rating for **language** and **sexual** **content**.


	2. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or themes from The CW's The 100; However, I do own my OC(s), the writing, and any and all plot line is created by me for this story. In addition, this is loosely (very loosely) based off of the movie Roman Holiday and therefore I cannot take any credit for themes taken from there, either.  
**

* * *

 **Chapter 1**

 _"I hate this nightgown! I hate all my nightgowns, and I hate my underwear, too."_

* * *

 _Please don't be up. Please don't be up. Please don't be—_

The light clicked on suddenly, catching Alessia Kane red-handed in a cat-like position on the first stair of the small, hotel-like townhouse. Her father, the notoriously strict Marcus Kane, was sitting stationary in his comfortable chair in the living room, one hand on the light switch as the other held a glass of bourbon. He wore an expression not to be messed with and observed her disheveled appearance (i.e., the slightly tousled hair, her clothes just a little skewed to the right, and the heavy burden of her heels in hand), not wanting to comprehend what she had done earlier in the evening.

"It's one in the morning, Alessia," the father chastised while his daughter sighed and lowered herself from her tip-toes. Begrudgingly, she walked from the stairs into the living room to her warden-like father. "Where have you been?"

"Out," she replied and tossed her heels to the side of the foyer so they were out of her hands.

"With…?"

"With Clarke."

"And?"

"And…Raven."

Kane looked at the brunette-haired girl disappointedly, waiting for her to admit the truth. When Alessia stood her ground, rightfully so as she was, in fact, the daughter of an extremely stubborn man, Kane was out of niceties. In an attempt to force her hand, Kane urged, "Did Calix Mercer happen to be there?"

Alessia hesitated. "He...may have dropped in..."

"Alessia, what have I constantly told you?!" Kane erupted in anger. If she hadn't been so used to him raising her voice, she'd flinch like the others, but she'd had to take it her whole life. If she weren't used to it by now, she wouldn't survive in the Kane household. He exploded, as if her discrete confession had thrown him off the edge. "I have told you countless times, you need to stop seeing him! He's one of the trainees and...and he's too old for you, anyways!"

She crossed her arms defensively. "Dad, he's _two_ years older than I am. And I'm eighteen, it's not like it's illegal."

"He also joined the military a year ago and, once Jaha makes the call, will be sent out to war." He scowled. "Is that what you want? A life where you sit at home and wait around for someone who may never come back?"

"Well, it's what I do for you, don't I?" she retorted, but her father just stood up out of his chair and sighed heavily, tired with her witty remarks.

"The difference is, you know I'll come back. I wouldn't be too sure about him." Kane brushed past his daughter and turned for the kitchen. "You broke curfew tonight, Alessia. Add on another two days of work at the base. Go to bed."

"Dad—"

"Goodnight, Alessia." He turned around and gave her the _look,_ the one that told her she wouldn't dare say another word unless she wanted to spend the rest of her life locked up in the house. Kane waited to make sure she would oblige him, and at last, she huffed and turned on her heel with extreme bitterness.

"Whatever you say, Lieutenant Colonel!" Alessia screamed out, disregarding their neighbors. Kane closed his eyes with extreme disdain and listened as she marched up the stairs, extremely pissed off, and slammed the door so loud, he was sure it probably broke the frame. When she had finished her tantrum, he just turned around calmly and walked back into the kitchen to get a glass of water before heading to bed, himself.

When Alessia was in her room, all she wanted to do was scream. She could've. She didn't care about it either way; in fact, anything she could do to ruin her father's stellar reputation around the military base, she would take it. Only, she was so frustrated that screaming or crying didn't work anymore. He didn't even give her a chance to explain herself or defend herself or even make a case to him—it was always about what Lieutenant Colonel Kane wanted and what Lieutenant Colonel Kane got. The other teenagers on the base had it easy. Not only did they have a mother to balance out the strict tension of the household, there wasn't another father like Marcus Kane out there, one that wouldn't take 'no' for an answer and always had to have what he deserved or thought he deserved. He always had to control her, always had to mold her into the perfect, subservient military child he always wanted.

As the frustrated, hopeless Alessia got dressed to get to bed, she heard her phone beep in her pocket. She had a few texts, most of them from Clarke and Raven in their group message.

 **bitchessss**

 _ **Clarke Griffin**_

 _Hey u ok?_

 ** _Raven Reyes_**

 _yeah did ur dad catch you for breaking curfew? he's the worst._

 ** _Clarke Griffin_**

 _Raven, that's her dad!_

 ** _Raven Reyes_**

 _we all know he's a dick, clarke. it's not a secret._

And then there was another text message, this time outside of the group chat from Calix Mercer, her not-so-secret boyfriend whom her father not-so-secretly disapproved of.

 **Calix Mercer**

 _Sorry we were out so late. I didn't mean to get you in trouble with your dad. I'll talk to him in the morning._

Before she replied to everyone, Alessia made sure to change and shut her light off so when her dad came upstairs, he would think that she was asleep. Once she was in bed, she looked over at the clock and realized it was 1:20. She had to get up in five hours for school, but she didn't really care. She turned the brightness down on her iPhone and texted in the dark.

 **bitchessss**

 ** _Alessia Kane_**

 _Raven's right. He's a dick._

 _I'm fine, but yeah he caught me._

 _Two more days of work detail at the base..._

As she waited for Raven and Clarke to text her back, she moved onto Calix.

 **Calix Mercer**

 _You don't have to talk to him. It wasn't your fault._

 _Besides, it was worth it..._

 **bitchessss**

 _ **Raven Reyes**_

 _ouch. rough. good luck with that._

 ** _Alessia Kane_**

 _Thanks, Raven. So supportive._

 _Maybe I should tell my dad about your extracurricular activities at school with Finn. He would love to sign you two up for some work with me._

 _I could use the company..._

 ** _Raven Reyes_**

 _YOU DO THAT AND I DISOWN YOU_

 ** _Alessia Kane_**

 _I would never._

 _Work detail is physical hell. I would never wish that on anyone._

 ** _Raven Reyes_**

 _speaking of physical hell, where did clarke go?_

 _clarke?_

 _clarkeeeeeee?_

 ** _Alessia Kane_**

 _She probably fell asleep..._

 ** _Raven Reyes_**

 _lame_

Right as Alessia was about to text back, she saw a dark shadow coming up the stairs from outside her door. She realized quickly that it was Marcus and knew that he would come to check on her. As if the phone were a hot potato in her hand, she quickly plugged it in beside her and turned on her other side, her back facing the door, and listened as the Lieutenant Colonel pushed open the door and walked in to make sure she was actually asleep. Actually, a few years back, she had to record herself while sleeping so she knew what she sounded like and could make an exact copy of it when he came to check on her because Kane was intense. If she was off by just a single snore, he would catch her. But she had mastered the art of fake sleeping and, reluctantly, Marcus retreated from the room and shut the door.

She turned onto her back and grabbed her phone again, this time only seeing a text from Calix.

 **Calix Mercer**

 _It always is._

 _I better go to bed before the LTC gives me hell in the morning._

 _Love you, Les_

Alessia smiled slightly, but she didn't feel quite right texting him back. There was something inside of her, something strange. She just felt so...so empty. It was like she was stuck in this time warp and she couldn't get out. Every night it was like this—they would go out, stay late, Kane would bust her, she would get punished, but it would all be worth it because she loved Calix and wanted to be with him. And every bit of work detail was worth it. But for once—just once—she wanted something different. Something other than going down to the river at the edge of the base and drinking stolen booze from Kane's office.

She sighed and just typed a heart emoji before putting her phone back on charge and turning over to finally get some rest.

* * *

Bellamy knew there was a problem. Six hours in the car and his sister hadn't said a single word to him. She was angry, he knew that, but what other choice did he have? There wasn't a better option for them that wouldn't cost them all they had plus the clothes on their backs. Octavia resented him now, sure, but she would come around eventually, right?

"I heard that the school is small there," Bellamy tried, partially staring at his sister in the passenger seat as she turned her head from him and looked out the window at the plain Virginia lands. "That's good, right? You'll get to know everyone, make some new friends..."

"Or everyone could think I'm a freak and then the entire school would hate me and I would have no friends and be alone for the next two years."

He hesitated, not exactly sure how to respond. "That's a bit dramatic."

"Dramatic or worst-case scenario?"

"Is there a difference?" Bellamy sighed, exhausted with Octavia's teenage petulance. "Look, O, you know I don't want to do this any more than you want to but...but this is the best I can come up with right now. And Mom always said Dad was in the military before—"

"I don't want to talk about it, Bellamy." Octavia snapped, shifting and turning father away from him. Bellamy paused for a moment, but he wasn't going to let her do this again. Since he mentioned that he was enlisting himself in the army so that he could provide for him and Octavia for the next two years, she had become something along the sorts of a devil child—rather, devil sister. She barely talked to him, she barely looked at him, and when she did look and talk to him, it was sour and sarcastic. He watched cautiously as the brunette teenager beside him reached down and pulled her old iPod out of her bag and raised the headphones to plug herself in, but he was tired of looking at the thing.

"Give me this!" Bellamy hissed under his breath as he snatched it from her hand and rolled down the window, all while keeping the car straight on the road.

"Bellamy!" Octavia shouted as he threw the iPod out the window. She watched as it went flying behind them in the wind on the lonely dirt road that would lead them to the military base. Octavia's mouth fell slack. "That's my iPod!"

"Yeah, well, not anymore."

Despite his best efforts, the rest of the car ride was absolutely boring. An hour or so later, after the painstakingly silent and awkward car ride between the siblings, Bellamy finally pulled the car up to the gate of the base, where he was told by the officers to park in the main lot behind the main building. He did so quickly, as he was cutting it close to the meeting time with Sergeant Shumway who was supposed to get the paperwork sorted and show him where Octavia would stay, since Bellamy had asked for housing for himself and his sister seeing as she had no one else to be with. All the trainees stayed on the base and only families of military personnel were allowed to house on-site.

Bellamy and Octavia both got out of the car and stepped out into the warm spring weather of rural Virginia—the Arkadia base, just a few miles from the Mount Weather emergency center. Both Blakes surveyed the prospects, realizing that it would be their home for the next six months of his training, until Bellamy was either deployed or moved to another base. It would be an adventure.

"Doesn't looks so bad," Bellamy offered. Octavia frowned.

"I miss New York."

Once they were inside the main building, they both looked around with curiosity and intrigue in their eyes. Bellamy didn't know what to do, so he sort of stood around by the door until he heard his name.

"Mr. Blake?"

Bellamy turned to his side to see a thirty-something man dressed in his uniform with slicked-back black hair approach him with a cordial smile. He nodded.

"Yeah."

The man stuck out his hand, where Bellamy shook it immediately, making sure to squeeze the appropriate amount for the army man. "Sergeant Shumway. Welcome to Fort Arkadia."

"Thank you. I'm glad to be here. You said we had some paperwork to fill out?"

"Right this way." Shumway looked over Bellamy's shoulder to see Octavia, looking around the building with a mixture of disgust and intrigue. "And this must be your sister."

Bellamy turned around and Octavia snapped out of her trance with the building as she was mentioned. Her brother nodded. "Octavia. You said she could stay on the base with me, right?"

"Well, we'll have to fill out the paperwork and get it approved by the Colonel, but yes, she'll be able to stay in one of the extra rooms on the edge of the base. And we'll go ahead and fill out the paperwork to enroll her in school. There aren't a lot of students—mostly just the kids of some of our personnel—"

Bellamy shrugged. "Octavia's always been good at fitting into small crowds."

Behind him, he could hear Octavia scoff, but he chose to ignore her. Shumway noticed however, and he paused for a moment or two before laughing to himself and nodding.

"I understand. Well, Mr. Blake, we should get started. We'll get the paperwork done and then you'll be shown your room and protocol. We only have fifteen minutes, so let's get started." He moved for Bellamy to come with him, but looked over at Octavia and pointed to a bench at the doors. "If you would just wait over there, please."

Octavia watched as Bellamy and the Sergeant rushed off and, bitterly, she made her way over to the bench Shumway had pointed out for her and crossed her arms over her chest defensively while watching all the boring army brats around her in their day-to-day activities. She waited for what felt like hours but was really only fifteen minutes, in which time she ended up dozing off for a bit. It was four-thirty in the morning, who could really blame her? She finally woke when she heard Bellamy and the Sergeant come out of his office and shake hands.

"Thank you, Sergeant Shumway."

"If you need anything, Private, you know where to find me." The Sergeant turned his head to look down the hallway. "Go down the hallway, make a left, then go straight down until you get to the exit. The PVT dorms are across the street. Your room number is 134, and you'll be sharing it with PFC Mercer. He'll show you the ropes around here."

The Private nodded to him as the Sergeant walked away and, retreating to Octavia, Bellamy sighed at her. "You ready?"

"For what?"

"School, apparently. Shumway said he's sending in a temporary enrollment down to the school until the Colonel can approve your forms and make the enrollment permanent. He said the temporary enrollment could last a month or two." Bellamy shrugged. Octavia frowned.

"I have to start school _today_? They couldn't at least give me a day to rest and take this all in?"

"Hey, it's the military. You really expect them to cut us some slack?"

He watched as Octavia practically bit back a frustrated and somewhat angsty groan, but she did a good job at containing it inside of her. Yet still frustrated, she held out her hand for the map in Bellamy's and another for his keys.

"I'm gonna get my stuff and go to wherever the hell I'm staying. Can I see the keys and the map, please?"

Bellamy, however, was hesitant. "I don't know if that's such a good idea..."

"Seriously, Bell? You already dragged me out here, it's not like I'm gonna go running off or something. Besides, like you said, the military doesn't cut us slack so...go meet that PFC or whatever. Can I please have the map?" she prompted with a tired look on her face. Bellamy again hesitated, but he realized where she was coming from. To be honest, he would've thought she'd handle it worse than she already was. So, graciously, he gave her the map and the keys to get her stuff.

"Okay, fine. Go ahead. I'll find you after school." Octavia nodded and turned to head out the front doors, but before she could, Bellamy called out to her. She turned around at the call for attention. "Octavia? I'm sorry I'm making you do this."

She stared at her brother and, for a moment, the resentment was gone. She shrugged. "It's what we have to do to survive, right?"

He nodded reluctantly and she gave him a faltering smile as she stepped out into the rising sun. He, in turn, walked in the other direction to where Shumway had pointed him towards. Bellamy knew he should be excited that he was starting something new in his life, something constant, but he couldn't help but feeling that there was something missing. Maybe he was still feeling grief over his mother, he didn't know. But all he knew was that he had a bad feeling in his stomach, and he couldn't seem to fill the void that emptied him.

Nevertheless, he followed Shumway's instructions perfectly and, when he entered the dorm room with the key Shumway had given him, he found that his roommate was passed out in his bed, as if resenting having to get up and start the day. Bellamy cocked an eyebrow, knowing that it probably wasn't the norm around the base. He attempted to wake the sleeping PFC, and finally, after a few pokes, the guy woke with a start.

"What time is it?" the Private First Class mumbled under his breath for a moment before checking the watch beside his bed. As soon as he saw it was 4:45 AM, he jumped up immediately with his eyes wide. "Oh, fuck. LTC's gonna kill me." The PFC looked up with a confused look. "Who the hell are you?"

"Private Blake..." Bellamy trailed off. "I just enlisted."

The PFC took time to realize what he was talking about, and finally nodded. "Right! Right, they said we were getting a new Private. Well, I'm PFC Mercer, but you can call me Calix. Listen, I was out late with my girlfriend last night..." Calix lifted himself from the bed and walked over to the closet to immediately put his clothes on without giving a second thought to the fact that he hadn't showered for the morning. Bellamy looked at him, perplexed.

"We're allowed to do that?"

"No. So I would appreciate it if you...didn't mention to the LTC that I wasn't up to greet you this morning outside the room."

Bellamy knotted his eyebrows. "The LTC?"

"Lieutenant Colonel Marcus Kane." Calix finally finished getting dressed and went over to the nightstand to put on his watch and his shoes. "Guy's a real asshole. Always by the book. Dots his 'i's, crosses his 't's...blah, blah, blah." He lifted himself from the bed after tying up his combat boots and sighed. "Your clothes are on the bed. Get dressed, we're going to morning training."

"What time will we be back? I was thinking I would go check on my sister before she goes to school—"

"She'll have to wait. Come on, we've got to move...unless you want the LTC to kick your ass." Mercer gave him a wide-eyed look. "Because he _will_."

Bellamy paused for a moment, but he realized he didn't have a choice. Per Calix's instructions, he texted Octavia quickly and told her that he was leaving his phone in the room while he went off to training.

* * *

"Dad," Alessia said slowly, starting to get a little pissed off as she gathered with the rest of the Privates and PFCs on the field behind the dorms. He had blared a horn in her ear early in the morning and told her to get dressed in gym clothes and to come with him and, of course, they were standing out in the early morning about to do exercises. She frowned at him. "Why did you wake me up early to do basics with the Privates?"

"Because, Alessia, I thought it would be good to get you up early in the morning." He smiled at her and watched as she yawned. "Tired? Late night?"

Alessia scowled. "You enjoy torturing me way more than a normal father should."

"Good thing I'm not a normal father. Get in line." Kane pointed to the Privates on the field and Alessia, annoyed as ever, reluctantly stepped forward and joined the Private line. The LTC looked around and furrowed his eyebrows, wondering where his PFC was with the new Private. Just as he opened his mouth to say something, Sergeant Shumway interrupted him with some news. Alessia yawned again for the second time in two minutes and, because of her tiredness and her father's incapability of mercy, she realized she needed to stretch to get it all out of her system.

After stepping off to the side, she placed her feet shoulder-with apart and quickly did her arm and neck stretches before bending down for a low lunge on both sides. As Kane continued to talk with Shumway, she watched as Calix and some guy following him quickly joined the Privates unnoticed. Alessia barely noticed them, but smiled at Calix as she stepped back from low lunge and into downward dog, knowing full well all of the Privates' eyes were on her—even the women Privates. Bellamy, still slightly out of breath since Calix had made him run to the courtyard behind the dorms, watched Alessia with intrigue, wondering what kind of attention-grabbing teenager would really be slutty enough to want to give a show to all the Privates. At last, Kane turned around to face the group of Privates and his daughter.

"Alessia, get back in line," the LTC barked at his promiscuous daughter. Alessia looked up at him from her downward dog and grimaced for a few moments before lifting and walking back over beside one of the Specialists, or SPCs, who was surveying her prospects. She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms to wait for her father's instructions. Instead, Kane stepped to the side to see PFC Mercer and Private Blake in the back. "PFC Mercer! Private. Nice of you two to join us."

The PFC merely did not say anything, only stiffened further with a stoic look on his face. Private Blake was slightly confused, but copied his superior's stance with ease. The Lieutenant Colonel quickly moved on, barking out immediate exercises which all the soldiers in front of him obliged with, as well as his own daughter. They went through the pyramid routine and, lastly, Kane ordered them all to run two miles around the laps.

"So we do this every morning?" Private Blake asked Mercer as they both ran at the same pace around the laps, mostly at the same speed as all of the other PVTs, PFCs, and SPCs. Calix shrugged.

"Most mornings, at least for you. It's mandatory for PVTs to attend morning exercises before Basic Combat Training, or BCT. PFCs and SPCs can choose as long as the Lieutenant Colonel says it's alright. I know you said something about your sister, but you might not have a lot of time to see her. Is she already enrolled at the school?"

"Temporarily, yeah. Sergeant Shumway said something about getting the Colonel's approval before she was permanent."

Calix scoffed. "By that time you'll be moved to another base, probably in Louisiana. I heard they're looking for more down there. Who knows? Maybe by then, you'll advance to a PFC. Just gotta impress the right people."

Bellamy used a few moments to catch his breath as they ran before asking, "Is that what happened with you? How long have you been here?"

"Ten months. And yeah, that's what happened to me. Lieutenant Colonel Kane trained me. God knows why."

Right as Bellamy opened his mouth to continue the conversation, the two soldiers heard a shout from behind them. Calix turned and watched as Alessia ran past, more glistening than sweating, with a triumphant smile on her face as she turned around and ran backwards, still at an abnormally fast pace. Calix laughed at her while she prompted, "You're slowing on me, Mercer. I could run laps around you."

"You could run laps around anyone, Alessia."

She shrugged, having no comment to the true statement. Her eyes glazed over the new trainee beside Calix. "Let me guess. Fresh meat?"

"Private Blake, actually," Bellamy corrected with a bitter edge to his voice, finding it abnormally rude for someone, let alone an obvious civilian, to talk to him like that; it was as if she were laughing at him with her eyes like he was doing something wrong and yet she was the one running backwards. But she didn't need to only laugh in her head, as Bellamy watched while she burst out laughing in the middle of her backwards run. However, she didn't share her supposedly humorous thoughts.

"Welcome to Fort Arkadia, Private. Have fun." She threw a sarcastic look to Calix and then turned around, taking off without blinking an eye. Bellamy stared after the teenager, as she looked no older than 18. When she was gone, Bellamy turned to Mercer, who was staring after her as well, but in an entirely different way.

"Who was that?"

"Lieutenant Colonel's daughter, Alessia Kane."

"You know her?"

"Something like that." Mercer chuckled under his breath and threw a small smile to Bellamy for a moment before suddenly speeding up, sprinting to Alessia, who had already gotten at least fifty feet from them. Bellamy slowed for a moment and watched as Mercer approached the dark-haired girl and they continued to run together. It was then that he could sense there was obviously something more there. Needless to say they were obvious to anyone who had eyes.

 _Great,_ Bellamy thought sourly. _So I guess I have to sleep with the Lieutenant Colonel's daughter to get anywhere around here. Damn politics._ He paused for a moment and watched her from a distance, and then admitted to himself: _well, at least she's not bad to look at._

"Private Blake!" he heard, and when Bellamy looked to the side, he saw Lieutenant Colonel Kane standing in the center of the field with a scowl situated on his lips. "It's not prom night around here! Move!"

Taking a deep breath, the Private frowned before picking up the pace, making his way around the track yet again. Oddly enough, he felt like he was back in high school, running laps around the track for his dick of a teacher. God, he hated high school. He had always though college would be much better, given all the freedom, but he didn't have a chance. College cost money, his grades weren't high enough to get scholarships, and his mother was up to her neck in bills, so he had to get out and get a job right away.

But thinking about the past merely slowed Bellamy down, so he pushed his memories away like he could shove it into a drawer and ran even faster.

* * *

"Raven, I like to get to bed at a reasonable time. File a complaint if it bothers you so much."

"You're such a goodie-two-shoes, Clarke."

"What is that supposed to mean?!"

"Well you wouldn't know, would you?" Raven smiled and watched as Alessia walked up to her and Clarke as they sat outside the building waiting for the first bell to ring. The dark-haired, olive-skinned teenager scoffed and waited as Alessia approached closer to shout to her, "You look like hell!"

Alessia came to a slow as she met up with her friends. "Yeah, my dickhead father woke me up at four this morning to do BCT with the Privates. Morning exercises, though, so it wasn't too rough. Thanks for the heads up though, Raven."

"You are most definitely welcome."

Clarke gave Raven a slight shake of her head, her pale blonde strands shaking in the reflection of the golden sun, before looking up at Alessia with a concern in mind. "You said you got added another two days for work detail?"

She nodded. "Yep. So I'm back up to another two weeks. Luckily it'll be over by the time we get our break. It's at the end of the month, right?"

"April 18th to April 29th." Alessia, Raven, and Clarke all turned their heads and watched as Finn Collins, Raven's boyfriend, approached them at the ledge outside of the school and walked up next to his girlfriend. "Trust me, I'm counting the days."

"Yeah, I know you are." Raven chuckled under her breath as Finn gave her a quick hello kiss to start the day. Alessia and Clarke watched, but it was nothing out of the ordinary. However, Alessia felt Clarke stiffen a bit beside her and wanted to ask, but she didn't get a chance to say anything before Finn turned and looked at Alessia with a prompted look.

"We're still good for the trip, right?"

"We should be." Alessia nodded and all her friends waited, realizing that it wasn't a definitive answer. "I...um, just gotta figure out what I'm gonna tell my dad. I'll start brainstorming tonight."

"Okay, well whatever you're telling him, make sure you tell me this time." Clarke turned her head to Alessia with a serious expression. "The last time we did something like this and I told my mom where we were actually going, the LTC basically tortured the information out of her. Never again will we make that mistake."

The brunette sat down on the ledge next to Clarke with a sigh. "Yeah, my dad seems to know exactly which buttons to push when it comes to your mom."

Raven scoffed from behind them. "Yeah, which 'buttons' alright."

"Raven!" both Clarke and Alessia chastised her at the same time. She shrugged in defense.

"What? I always get the feeling something more's going on there. Not like you two would ever find out, though. Alessia, your dad's a master at secrets. You don't quite get that from him."

Clarke shuddered. "I think I'd physically throw up if I found out your dad and my mom—"

Thankfully, before Clarke could finish, the bell rang over the loudspeakers, signaling their five minutes to get to class. The four of them lifted themselves up from the ledge and began to walk into the school reluctantly, dreading the day ahead. As they made their way up the stairs, they were joined by their unlikely alliance, the science nerds, Monty and Jasper.

"Hey guys!" Jasper greeted them enthusiastically as they all stepped into the school to get to class. He was an odd kid, extremely tall and thin frame with goggles on his head all the time with the weirdest graphic t-shirts. Monty, too, was of the same breed, just without the obvious science-geek look. Nevertheless, ever since Clarke had been put into a lab group with them, they had been hanging out with the four at school. "Did you hear?"

"The bell?" Alessia filled in with a small smile. Monty rolled his eyes.

"No, not the bell. Apparently, there's a new Private on the base. Just came in this morning."

"Is he hot?" Raven asked. Finn looked down at her with a cocked eyebrow, and she looked up with a clever smile. "I'm...asking for Clarke. She needs a new boyfriend ever since she and Wells didn't work out."

Clarke cleared her throat. "Um, thanks, Raven, but I'm alright."

"Well I still want to know if this Private is hot." She turned to Finn. "Strictly curious, baby."

"He's alright looking." Alessia shrugged, shifting her bag to her other shoulder. Everyone looked over at her, surprised. She nodded. "Yeah, I met him this morning. I'm guessing he's Calix's new roommate because they were running together. Trust me, he won't last a week."

Raven scowled and asked hopefully, "Is he really 'alright looking' or are you just saying that because you're afraid to admit that he's smoking hot?"

"Well, I mean...he's sorta presumptuous, I guess. Rugged, if you're into that sort of thing."

"Who isn't?"

"Raven, I am right here," Finn informed her just as they pulled up to his first class. She smiled and pushed him to the side playfully.

"Oh, stop being so needy. Go to class. I'll see you later."

She just listened as he chuckled under his breath and went inside the classroom with Monty as well, leaving Raven, Clarke, Alessia, and Jasper to roam the hallways. When Monty and Finn were gone, Alessia turned to Jasper.

"Was that all the interesting gossip you had, Jasper? A new Private? It was kinda lame."

"Nooooo, Alessia, I had something else!" The three girls beside him waited patiently, where Jasper inhaled sharply. "Oh! You want me to tell you now? Okay, um, apparently there's a new girl coming to the school today, too. She's the Private's sister, I think. Sister or daughter, I forgot. Actually, I think that it might be his sister but he has legal custody so—"

"We're getting someone new?" Clarke asked, her expression excited. Jasper nodded eagerly.

"I know! This is so exciting! I hope she's hot...or nice-looking...or even mediocre, just as long as she's into me—"

Raven shook her head at the science nerd and nudged him as they came up to their first period English class. "Come on, Jasper, I'll find you someone mediocre. Save this mystery new girl a heartbreak, huh?"

Clarke and Alessia watched as Raven dragged Jasper into their first period and disappeared from the hallway. When they were alone, Clarke nudged her elbow into Alessia's ribs playfully with a teasing smile.

"So, how were things with you and Calix last night? We looked up and you both were gone. Figured you disappeared behind the bleachers or...?" she prompted, waiting for an explanation. The night before, the night she had gotten caught for staying out too late, Alessia had been with Raven, Clarke, Monty, Jasper, Finn, and later were joined by Calix out by the football field. It was far enough from the base that the adults wouldn't go out at night and, with the lights off, it wasn't obvious that there were kids around—the perfect hangout spot. To her friends, it wasn't really a secret that she and Calix were in a relationship, although Raven had been right before that they were far from subtle. Besides, her father could smell a secret from miles away based on the sole fact that he was the best at hiding secrets from everyone else. It was a Marcus Kane gift.

"It was good." Alessia smiled to herself for a moment, but she couldn't shake off that feeling she'd had the night before—her incompleteness. Nevertheless, she brushed it away and moved on. "Really good. I think he might be coming with us on this road trip, he'll just have to put in for a few days leave probably in the middle of when we're going. If he tries to take off the same week we are, the LTC will know what we're doing."

"Yeah, you know..." Clarke trailed off just as they entered their Civics class. "I don't think this road trip is such a good idea. I might back out, I've been thinking about taking my mom up on that offer to go visit colleges out in California."

They sat down at their desks and Clarke shielded her eyes as Alessia gasped. "No! No, Clarke! You can't do that! What am I supposed to tell my dad?"

"Oh, relax. You and Raven can come up with a scheme of your own."

"Clarke." Alessia leaned over her desk and whispered cautiously, "What is going on? You've been acting weird for the past few days and now you're gonna bail on our trip of a lifetime? Come on!"

Clarke averted her gaze. "It's nothing."

"If it were nothing, you wouldn't be backing out of this trip." Before Alessia could get any further, the final bell rang just as the teacher started to speak over Clarke trying to reply, most likely to deny once again that something was wrong. But Alessia could see the look in her eyes and knew that there was obviously something wrong, only she didn't have another chance to ask. Ten minutes into class, as Mr. Miller was halfway through his lecture on their upcoming graded mock trial, the door of the classroom opened to reveal an unfamiliar face of a new, sixteen or seventeen-year-old girl who looked just as embarrassed as they all did enthusiastic. Clarke and Alessia shared a glance as the girl looked around for a moment, completely dumbfounded, before finally turning to the teacher behind her.

"You're late," he stated bleakly. The new girl, about 5'5" with dark, nearly black hair stumbled forward and extended a slip to him.

"I know. I was in the front office, they told me to give this to you. I think you're supposed to sign it."

He nodded to her. "I will after class. What's your name?"

"Octavia. Octavia Blake."

"Welcome to Arkadia Academy, Octavia. Have a seat."

"Octavia's such a nice name," Clarke muttered to Alessia as the class murmured a few inside chatters while the new girl took her seat. Alessia didn't respond, but made a mental note that the new girl, Octavia, looked a lot like the Private she had met earlier in the morning, but she looked too similar to be a daughter. Besides, Private Blake looked too young to have a daughter in their grade anyways. Somewhere from twenty minutes to a half an hour later, Mr. Miller broke apart the class for group assignments, letting the students in the small classroom choose their own groups. Alessia turned to Clarke with her pencil tapping against the desk as Clarke pursed her lips, thinking. Alessia studied the look on her face and sighed.

"You want to invite the new girl over to work with us, don't you?"

"Yeah, sorta."

"Alright, go ahead."

Clarke smiled at Alessia for a moment before turning to the new girl looking around awkwardly, and somewhat uncomfortably, in the back for anyone who would take her in a group. When she locked eyes with Clarke, the kind blonde beckoned her over. Octavia paused for a moment, but gathered her things and moved into an empty desk in front of Clarke, giving the two other teenage girls a warm, forced greeting smile.

"Thanks for that," she muttered. Clarke smiled.

"Don't mention it. I'm Clarke."

"And I'm Alessia." Alessia leaned over her desk with her arms crossed and smiled softly. "Private Blake's your brother, right?"

Octavia blinked. "Um, yeah. Word travels fast?"

"Yes, but that's not how I knew. I met him this morning." She leaned back in her chair and watched as Octavia let out a disappointed sigh.

"He enlisted last month without telling me. One minute, it was a public school of over three thousand students and now it's...a military base school with less than fifteen kids in one class." Clarke and Alessia could detect a bitterness in Octavia's tone, but they both laughed at it. At first, Octavia thought they were making fun of her, but then Clarke shook her head.

"Trust me, you get used to it. It's definitely got its ups and downs, but—"

"Oh stop, Clarke. You wouldn't know." Alessia rolled her eyes and then looked at Octavia with a scoff. "Three quarters of the people here grew up on this base. Most of us have never even been outside the walls before."

Octavia scowled. "Well that sucks for you all, then."

"It does." Alessia smiled for a moment, and then her smile dropped as she realized how sad the statement she had before commented to Octavia about. _Most of us have never even been off this base before._ It was so painfully true that it made Alessia cringe inside thinking of the fact that in one year, she would be off to college and wouldn't have a single experience outside of the Arkadia base. And that was assuming her father, as manipulative as he was, even allowed her to go off the base for college. The alternative was most likely ten times more pleasing for him—enlisting her for four years.

"Well we should get started on this thing." Clarke looked behind Octavia to the front of the classroom and nodded her head towards their teacher, who was looming over the group that coincidentally contained his son. "Mr. Miller doesn't even let his own kid slack off."

Octavia chuckled quietly as she referred back to what Clarke was talking about, and the three continued their work to avoid Mr. Miller's hovering.

* * *

"Lieutenant Colonel," Shumway muttered under his breath as he walked into Kane's office stiffly, avoiding contact with the LTC in the middle of his meeting. Kane looked up from his visitor to wait for Shumway's announcement. "I have something you need to see. It's an urgent matter."

Kane pursed his lips. It could have something to do with what he asked of Shumway to do earlier in the morning, and if it was, he realized that he needed to clear the room. Nodding to Shumway, he looked at his visitor and asked him to step outside. When Kane's office was cleared, Shumway looked at Kane, who stood up from his desk and waited.

"What is it, Sergeant?"

Shumway stepped forward and produced a DVD in his hand. "I acquired yesterday's security tapes as you asked."

"Did you watch it?"

"No, Sir."

"Good. That'll be all, Sergeant. Thank you." Marcus waited until the Sergeant nodded and turned to leave before he sat back down in his office chair and stared at the DVD in his hand. With a heavy, nervous sigh, Kane slipped the DVD into the drive of his computer and leaned back in his chair.

 _Please don't do this to me, Alessia,_ he begged as he put his head in his hand and watched the surveillance tape. Using his mouse, he skimmed through the day before finally coming to a stop at 12:15AM where he knew it had to have happened if it were her. From the view of all eight cameras watching, he mainly focused on one: the one that no one knew he installed, least of all his daughter and her boyfriend. It covered the exact spot he needed to see to arrest the culprit.

 _4/7/16 12:15AM_

And there it was. Marcus watched in horror, disappointment, and absolute fury as his daughter and his most highly esteemed PFC snuck into his office safe to acquire a portion of the $800,000 dollars sitting in stacks upon stacks of hundred dollar bills.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading! Please review! If you haven't seen it already, there is a** playlist **and a** trailer **on my profile for this story! Be sure to check them out after you leave a comment below! :)**


	3. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: Refer to Chapter 1.**

* * *

 **Chapter 2**

 _"The best thing I know is to do exactly what you wish for a while."_

* * *

"But it's alright, it's okay...I've got the time but the time don't pay...It's alllright it's okay...I've got the time but the time don't pay!" Alessia whispered the lyrics of the song passionately as she skirted her way around the men's bathroom. She felt like she was in the middle of a pigsty—like, seriously, was there a particular reason that military boys were so nasty? You wouldn't think that it was that hard to aim for the toilet instead of the floor or the wall, but for some reason, the concept seemed too difficult to grasp for them.

She suspected her father meant to give her a bitter taste in her mouth when assigning her to bathroom duty. Alessia had expected it; so it wasn't really much of a surprise when he shoved the bottle of Clorox at her and gave her a toothbrush to work with. She imagined he would now be disappointed if he saw her knelt over the toilet without so much as flinching. She was even able to touch the floor with her knees because she had already taken care of the floor. Now, she scrubbed bits of dried urine off the rusted white toilets while jamming out to her playlist effortlessly.

Work detail wasn't particularly fun, but when assigned to it at least once a week year-round, one learns to suck it up and deal with it.

The music in her ears were too loud for her to hear when someone came through the door. She had stopped her terrible, flat singing before the intrusion, and given that the stall she was in was closed, whoever walked in did not recognize there was someone else inside, either—a female, no less. It was Private Blake, who had come back from combat training with his Fort Arkadia t-shirt soaked in sweat, his forehead dripping from the heat of the afternoon spring weather. Towel in hand, he walked over to the showers at the corner of the bathroom adjacent to the urinals and peeled off his foul-smelling shirt from his body and turned on the water. He figured he needed to pee first.

Alessia lifted herself from the toilet she had been working on with a soft sigh. She was finished with that bathroom at last, but she had two more on the other levels, so there was no reason to be excited. As Billy Squier had finally made his way up on her playlist, she opened the stall door and stepped out, only to crash into half-naked man dripping with sweat.

"What the hell?!" Alessia ripped out her earbuds and stepped back into the stall while Bellamy, with a harsher expletive, stopped himself at the door of the urinal in surprise. He threw his hands up at her.

"What are you doing in here?"

"Why are you wet?" the brunette cringed as she recoiled into herself smelling the foul man-stink. He scoffed.

"You _do_ know this is the men's bathroom, right?"

"You _do_ know that there's a sign outside that says 'use level 2', right? You can read, I'm assuming?" she retorted, equally as judgmental. Bellamy shook his head.

"There's no sign."

"Yes there is..." Alessia opened her mouth to say something, presumably on the snarky side, but then she lost her train of thought. Her eyes had involuntarily drifted downwards, where maybe they had stayed a little too long on the sight of impeccably toned abs that presented itself to her. She swallowed thickly, and when enough silence had passed, Bellamy's confused look turned into a small smile.

"You can speak, I'm assuming?" Her eyes snapped up to meet his cocky ones. "Or am I too distracting for you?"

She bit down on her cheek hard enough to draw blood. Her face turned stone cold as she stiffened and her eyes narrowed into slits at him. "Next time, read the sign."

"You want there to be a next time?" Bellamy propositioned. It was less of the fact that he was attracted to her (as everyone else was, he assumed), but more of the fact that it was fun to watch her squirm. Underneath her aesthetics, though, he knew what there really was: a spoiled daddy's girl who craved rebellion. He saw it in her eyes at BCT, he saw it then. Kane's daughter said nothing to him but just moved forward, bumped him out of the way, and squeezed through the small space to get out of the stall.

"Not when you smell like that," she muttered snidely before exiting the bathroom. Bellamy scowled as she left and walked inside the stall to relieve himself before washing the day's work off him.

When Alessia was outside, she paused for a moment, momentarily lapsed. She unconsciously turned her head and found that the sign that had been on the door had mysteriously floated down to the ground, face-down. Alessia rolled her eyes and merely left, trying to ignore the smell of sweat that still lingered on her skin from the accidental contact. Four hours later, somewhere around six or seven in the evening, she was washing her own sweat off with the back of her hand as she ached to go home, get her homework done, and sleep for the rest of the night. Her father, however, had other plans for her.

"Alessia, my office." Kane could see the annoyed look in his daughter's eye as he caught her leaving after her work detail had finished. But he didn't care. He meant business. "Now."

Realizing she had to do what he said (or else), she begrudgingly followed him into his office. Once inside, Marcus shut and locked the door, closed the blinds, and walked over to his desk, where he turned off the security cameras. She could tell that this was serious and that it was completely out of the ordinary for him. Something was wrong.

"Dad, what is it?" she asked.

Kane looked up and snapped, "Don't pretend like you don't know, Alessia."

He said her name so coldly. She knew what that meant: he had figured it out. She was wondering when he would realize. Could they get away for it for a month? Two? Three? Each time she and Calix had snuck into her father's office and had done the deed they would never dare speak of to another soul, she ached for him to catch them. She ached for him to feel the pain he inflicted on her.

He stole her childhood, so she would rob him of the one thing Marcus Kane cared about: control over his job.

Alessia kept quiet for a long time before setting the toothbrush and the Clorox on the table in front of Kane's desk. Then, she slowly pulled her arms up and crossed them over her chest, not sure whether she wanted to ask what would happen next or tell him how glad she was that she had done it.

But for some inexplicable reason, what came out of her mouth was actually a defense. "You and I both know all of that money was corrupt. At least I put it to good use."

"Damn it, Alessia, it's not about that!" Marcus shouted, but was protected by the sound-proof walls of his office. She flinched this time, knowing that this was a mood where her father was not to be messed with. In his mind, though the money was obtained illegally, it didn't make what she did any less illegal. It didn't make it any less of a mess. "Do you realize what you've done?"

"Take illegally obtained blood money and give it to people who need it instead of terrorists who were going to be bought off?"

"Don't." Kane's eyes went cold. "Don't ever repeat that sentence again. You did nothing, you understand me? You did nothing but disobey your father and...and for that—and that only—you'll be punished."

"Punished?"

"Another three weeks detail." He could see her start to realize, the heat in her eyes becoming apparent. "Yes, I know what that means, Alessia. No spring break trip for you. You should be grateful you're not spending it in jail."

"You cannot do this to me! I am sick of you ruining my life! This place might as well be a goddamn prison!" Alessia shouted, a dirty look in her eyes. Her father expressed no sympathy whatsoever. Instead, he bent over his desk and banged his fist down on the hard oak.

"When will you get it through your head, Alessia? I am not ruining your life, I'm _saving_ it. You think this place is a prison? You don't know anything! Try spending a night in a real jail and tell me then how badly you have it here." She flinched, and he waited for a few moments so she could process his scolding. "I don't know what I did to make you hate me this way, but it ends now. These stunts will not go on. And it will be easier with _him_ gone."

Having spoken his peace, Marcus hesitated and then turned, angrily, to sit down in his chair behind the desk. The second his words exited his mouth, Alessia's eyes went wide.

"What did you do?"

Kane shook his head incredulously. "Don't do that. Don't play the victim here, Alessia. You did what you did. I protected you."

"No, you protected _yourself._ Dad, what did you do?"

"You should be thanking me—"

"Damn it, what did you _fucking_ do?"

"I got rid of him, Alessia! And you'll be better for it." Kane looked up at her with a blank expression and watched as his daughter's eyes went dark. "Mercer was a distraction. He influenced you to do bad things. I will not let him take you or anyone else down with him. He was sent to the correctional facility in Richmond. His trial is next month, where I've been assured he'll be dishonorably discharged and will spend the rest of his _pathetic_ life in jail."

"This wasn't supposed to happen," she whispered under her breath, backing up until she hit the couch at the opposite end of the room and rested on the arm. Her heart felt as if it'd been crushed underneath a large weight and was struggling barely to make it out alive. Her father scoffed angrily.

"You should've thought of that before you did what you did." Kane looked at her, disappointed. "And you can kiss an out-of-state college goodbye. I've arranged for you to enlist after graduation next month."

Alessia looked up abruptly. "I won't do it."

Kane shrugged. "Then go to jail, Alessia. I'm giving you a way out here. I'd take it if I were you."

She was absolutely astounded. Her own father was saying these words; this was really happening. She could see the disappointment, the fury in his eyes. Alessia could not comprehend how completely disgusting the man before her was. "You would do that to your own daughter?"

"You have given me _no_ choice!" She jumped back as he stood up abruptly with the throaty exclamation. Alessia was practically holding herself, afraid he would do something he would regret or that would make her hate him more. He'd only hit her once, and it had stuck with her forever. She could feel that same atmosphere, even from across the room. But he controlled himself at last, and slowly came to lean back in his chair with a frustrated sigh. "Go home, Alessia. I can't handle this anymore."

She knew her father never loved her. Her mother's death had made that inescapable. But for him to so blatantly disregard her life in front of her eyes—for him to suggest she spend her life in a dark prison cell or for him to condemn her boyfriend to military prison, that was a different story. She knew what she did was wrong, but she never expected her father to go this far. Alessia couldn't breathe.

But her feet carried her out of the room. Her mind, out of commission entirely, led her home. And when she was inside, she was no longer okay. The second she stepped through the threshold and heard nothing but absolute silence, she broke down. The whole house heard her wails and ached to comfort her, but it couldn't. She stood in the middle of the foyer, a stream of sorrow swallowing her whole.

She cried until she had no more tears left and determination took its place.

* * *

Bellamy woke to a persistent rapping on his door. The clock beside him read 2:30 in the morning. Who the hell was at his door at 2:30 in the morning? If Mercer locked himself out of their goddamn room to go see the LTC's daughter for a booty call, he would be extremely peeved. He had only known Calix for a few days, and he had come to be a pretty good friend at the base, but the fact that he was banging the LTC's daughter was extremely discouraging.

"Shut up," Bellamy muttered under his breath as he shuffled his feet to his door, not even bothering to get properly dressed to answer it. He was only in his sweats, which counted somewhat as pajamas for him—well, considering that he slept naked on a regular basis before. The knocking continued as he reluctantly moved forward, and therefore an annoyed groan escaped his lips.

"Calm your fucking ass, I'm coming, Mercer." He opened the door, his eyes half-shut as he hissed, "Take a fucking key next time you go see your girlfriend, okay?'

But it wasn't Mercer at the door. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he could make out a feminine figure. Alessia Kane stood at the threshold, her face red and somewhat out of breath. He watched as she shot him an unpleasant look.

"Do you even own a goddamn shirt?" Alessia snapped at him. Bellamy looked down and remembered that he was shirtless. A hum moved through his lips.

"If I did, I'm sure you would be disappointed." He leaned against the door tiredly. "What do you want, Kane? I don't know about here, but where I'm from, this is normally a time where people sleep. Well, the sane people, anyways—"

"Where is he?" she asked urgently. Bellamy shrugged as a response, too tired to form words. "Calix. Calix, Blake. Where is he?"

"I don't know, okay? I thought he was with you or something." He rubbed his eyes. "That is what you two do, right? I figured he was just getting laid."

"You're disgusting," the brunette hissed under her breath, trying not to wake the rest of the guys in the other rooms. "When did you see him last?"

"Um...BCT yesterday? Your _daddy_ pulled him out of it early." He said the word with lame sarcasm as a result from his sleepiness. It was more ineffective than he intended. He was slightly concerned by her lack of a snarky response, as he was half paying attention to her at the door. But when he didn't hear her, that's when he was worried. She just stood in front of him, looking inside the room as if longing for something. Bellamy sighed. "Is something wrong?"

"What do you care?" She scoffed. He shrugged.

"I don't, really."

"You know, I don't know how it works wherever _you're_ from, but around here that's called being extremely rude."

"I'm from New York, Kane. We can do whatever the hell we want. Trust me, you don't know rude. " Bellamy laughed to himself because, quite frankly, she _didn't_ know rude. It was just laughable that the LTC's princess daughter was trying to teach him a lesson on kindness. But as he mocked her ignorance, he saw something strange. She didn't care about him anymore, all she did was gaze into the room and that look of longing in her eyes became clearer to him. He knew that look. He'd had that look. It wasn't longing—it was pain. Suddenly, he became very still. "Seriously, though. Are you okay?"

She hesitated for a moment. He didn't think she heard him, honestly. It was as if she were in her own little world, but on the flip of a coin, her eyes readjusted to stare straight into his.

"I'm fine." Alessia's face turned completely blank and she stormed off without so much as a word. Bellamy thought it was odd, but what did he know? She wasn't much older than Octavia, he imagined. Teenage girls were a mystery to him.

So, without giving it any more thought, he shut the door and climbed back into his bed to salvage what sleep he had left before morning BCT.

* * *

"Kane can't do that, can he?" Raven asked in disbelief as she, Alessia, Clarke, and Octavia lounged around on the bleachers outside, the Virginia sun beating down on them with harsh light. Alessia was lying down on the bleacher, her arm draped over her head shielding her from the light as her friends created somewhat of a circle of trust around her, all invested in the mess that was Alessia Kane's life. "Just discharge Calix because you're dating? That's gotta be against...I don't know, _some_ rule."

"Raven, no." Clarke scoffed and Raven looked up at her with a cocked eyebrow. "You think that Kane really discharged Calix because he was dating Alessia? Come on. He's known for months. Something else happened."

Raven frowned. "Well, what was it?"

They all looked at Alessia, who said nothing. She just laid quietly down on the uncomfortable cool bleacher and listened to the conversation around her, contemplating her decisions. When they realized she wasn't going to respond, Clarke nodded.

"Plausible deniability. Smart," she commented. Raven rolled her eyes.

"What, like she and Calix did something illegal? Come on, they're the poster couple for...I don't know, a cheesy Hallmark movie or something. Plausible deniability my ass, Kane, what did you do?! Did the LTC catch you fooling around or something?"

They waited for an answer. Nothing came.

"Maybe she just wants some quiet," Octavia suggested, picking at the fries she'd gotten from the lunch line as she studied Alessia. "Do you want us to shut up about it, Alessia?"

Clarke, Raven, and Octavia all waited for an answer, but just when they thought that nothing would come and braced to move on, Alessia raised a sigh deep in her lungs and dropped her arm from her forehead and opened her eyes. Clarke, Raven, and Octavia formed a triangle around her head and awaited her to speak.

"All I ever get is the fucking quiet," she muttered sourly. They all moved out of her way as she lifted herself to a sitting position, sliding down so that they all turned their heads the opposite way to look at her as she put her head in her hands and rested her elbows on her knees. "I can't stand it anymore. This town, my life. Spring break was the only chance I had to ditch this hellhole and find something new, but no. He had to take it away from me. Again."

"Uh oh." Octavia looked up at Clarke, who had said the words under her breath. Raven knew what they meant, but Octavia needed her to elaborate. Clarke leaned down and whispered to Octavia, "She's having a 'get me the hell out of here' moment."

Octavia paused and looked back and forth between Raven and Clarke, concerned. "Does she have them that often?"

"Yeah, Octavia, I do." Alessia lifted herself from the bleacher and turned to her friends. "Because I _need_ to get the hell out of here! I hate this place. I hate everything about it! For once, I just want to have fun! I don't want my decisions to have to concern either...enlisting or going to jail!"

Raven's eyes widened. "What?! Alessia, you're going to jail?"

"What for?" Clarke asked, panicked.

Alessia shook her head. "That's not the point here! The point is, I am tired of being held hostage. I need to leave. Today. Now."

Raven scoffed. "And where would you go? What would you do? Alessia, you've never even been past the front gate. Besides, Kane wouldn't let you go and you know that. Especially since you've apparently done something that warrants _jail time_."

"You could always go to New York." Octavia shrugged as she chewed on a fry. Alessia looked over at her, intrigued, and watched as Octavia scoffed. "I mean, if you would go anywhere, it should obviously be there. Bright lights, big city and all that. My brother knows all the big spots, you should ask him—"

Clarke stopped her. "Even if she wanted to go, none of us have a car or a license because we never go outside this place. We were gonna have one of the PFCs drive us to the airport for the trip. So that's pretty much a deal breaker right there. Look, Alessia, you're just having a moment...and so is your dad. I'm sure whatever you did was not _that_ bad. Well, not bad enough to make you go to jail for it. Give your dad time, he'll come around."

"Um, have you _met_ Marcus Kane?" Raven murmured under her breath, earning a distinct, "SHHH!" from Clarke that Alessia heard, but chose to ignore. Instead, she was still fascinated over what Octavia had been saying. Completely disregarding Clarke and Raven's back-and-forth, Alessia stepped down two bleachers and slid over right next to Octavia, a wild look in her eyes.

"New York. New York, tell me about New York."

Octavia was slightly frightened. Alessia's urgency made her extremely uncomfortable. "Uh, I don't know. It's big. It's a city. There are a bunch of skyscrapers everywhere. It's dirty, too, not like this place. This place is almost... _too_ clean."

"Obviously you haven't been into the boy's bathroom," Raven muttered. Alessia waved her hand in front of Raven's face to hush her, causing a slightly offended look from the dark brunette on the upper bleachers.

"What else?" the persistent girl urged. Octavia shrugged and threw up her hands.

"I don't know! I've lived there my whole life but I don't really talk about tourist-y things. I mean, there's the Empire State Building, Central Park, Times Square...there's a bunch of shit to do there. Is that what you wanted to hear?"

"Alessia, what are you thinking?" Clarke asked, slightly weary of the wheels turning in her friend's mind. She could see Alessia look off at the military dorms in wonder, as if she had a bright idea that she couldn't seem to get out of her head. She didn't answer Clarke, but instead lifted herself from the bleachers and slipped her phone into her back pocket. Clarke shook her head. "Alessia, where are you going?"

"Anywhere. Everywhere!" she shouted over her shoulder as she quickly rushed down the bleachers, throwing caution to the wind.

* * *

"Hey Blake," one of the PVTs asked him, sticking his head out of the shower. Bellamy looked over at him and the PVT's eyes looked over at the towel on the sink. "Will you grab that for me?"

"Yeah." Bellamy reached forward and tossed the towel at the PVT, who thanked him and let Bellamy continue grooming himself. He had already showered off the stink from BTC and was still in his towel from the shower. As he reached forward to grab his toothbrush, there was suddenly a loud _bang!_ at the door, and the next thing he knew, a bunch of the PVTs and PFCs were hollering for someone to get out. But in addition to those hollers, there were a few cat-calling sounds, intriguing Bellamy. The next thing he knew, there was a loud female voice shouting at everyone.

"Yeah, yeah, I know! You all haven't seen a girl in months, I get it. Everyone get out!" The crowd seemed to part, and when they did, Bellamy saw Alessia Kane staring at all the men, as if searching for someone. He sighed. That girl didn't quit. When none of the PVTs or PFCs listened to her, she snapped, "Now!"

"Alright, alright," the men chorused, and the next thing Bellamy knew, all of the military men flooded out of the communal bathroom as if she had shooed them away with the slightest touch of her finger. Even the PVT in the bathroom who had just gotten out of the shower followed everyone else's footsteps. Therefore, with a roll of his eyes, Bellamy decided to do the same. Instead, she blocked him from leaving.

"Not you." She waited as the rest of the men scurried out and while she watched them leave, Bellamy stared at her intensely. What the hell was going on?

"Look, I sympathize with you. I do. Losing a boyfriend and all, it's gotta be hard." Bellamy shrugged. "But honestly, I don't care. Like, really. I don't. What you want from me, I can't give you."

She turned back at him, shaking her head. "What?"

"Sex. I know you want sex, but I'm sorry, I'm just not all that into spoiled—"

"Who the hell do you think I am?!" Alessia snapped, cutting him right off at the end of his sentence, which would've gone into a completely different territory. Bellamy watched her as a look of disgust crossed her face. "I don't know how big you think your ego is, but I would never add to it. I don't want to have _sex_ with you, jackass."

"Then why are you here?"

"Because, I—" She opened her mouth to say something, but the fire in her eyes from his earlier accusation made her stop midway. Eventually, she shook her head. "Forget it."

Alessia turned to walk out, but before she could, Bellamy grabbed her arm quickly to prevent her from leaving. She fought against him, oddly strong for a girl. He was unprepared, so she slipped out of his grasp, but because he had caught her back, she stayed in her place. Bellamy stared at her with a scoff. "You kicked all those PVTs and PFCs out for a reason. I would rather you not come knocking on my door during the middle of the night again, so will you just do us both a favor and ask me what you barged in here to ask?"

She hesitated, but knew that he wouldn't let her go if she didn't say anything. So, she figured that she might as well go ahead and say it. Truthfully, it was then or never.

"I want to go to New York."

Bellamy was completely unfazed. "Okay. You take I-95 North to—"

"No. No, you don't understand. I don't drive. Besides, I wouldn't be able to get five steps away from this place without being spotted. I...I need someone to go with me." Alessia sighed. "And...and you're from there. You know the city. I want to go to New York. Tomorrow."

He was silent, for the most part. After around the third or fourth second he'd had to process what she'd said, he surprised her. Erupted in laughter, as if something she'd said was hilarious and couldn't be fathomable. In between his breaths, he asked, "You...want... _me_ to take you to New York?"

"Yes." It was an unflinching response, though slightly irritated by his theatrics.

When he'd caught enough breath to speak in a complete sentence, he inhaled heavily through his laughs. "Do you realize how ridiculous that is? What, do you think I'm just free to come and go as I please here? I enlisted in the fucking army, for Christ's sake!"

"I have ways to get us out, Blake. I just need to know that you're on board."

"What would make you think I'm on board with such an outrageous idea? What would I even get out of this? The 'satisfaction' of taking a spoiled little rich girl out of her town just to end up locked up for it? Besides the fact that I just don't _want_ to, your dad will have me arrested and discharged the second I bring you back."

Alessia shook her head as Bellamy laughed a few more times, as if imagining the ludicrous scenario was too much to handle. She reached into her back pocket and grabbed her phone, scrolling through it until she finally pulled up what she wanted. When she turned the phone around and held it in Bellamy's face, he stopped laughing.

"What is that?"

"That's a bank account, Blake. There's 500,000 dollars in there. If you take me to New York, all the expenses are on me. I can transfer one hundred and fifty thousand to your bank account now and I can transfer another one hundred and fifty thousand dollars afterwards. You don't have to come back. After you drop me off, you can leave before they ever find out it was you. I will never tell them."

Bellamy's eyes widened and he looked beyond the phone to Alessia. "I have a sister, Kane. She's here, I can't—"

"I can arrange for someone to take her out before we get back. With all the money you'd have, you can start over." She locked her phone and put it back in her pocket before crossing her arms. "Do we have a deal?"

But he was still hesitant. He squared his jaw and asked skeptically, "How'd you get the money?"

"Doesn't matter."

"It does. How'd you get the money?"

"It doesn't! Look, all you need to know is that the money came from some very bad people and I put it to good use, okay? And I'm doing the same thing now." She shrugged. "So are you in or are you out, Blake? It's only for a week. We'd need to leave tomorrow morning."

He stared at the teenager in front of him blankly, trying to come to terms with what she was saying. She wanted him to sneak her out of Fort Arkadia, abandon his enlistment, get blacklisted for the rest of his life, and leave Octavia at the hands of people he didn't know all to get her to New York City and show her around? And then, as payment for his service, he would receive $300,000 worth of money he doubted she'd obtained legally. She wanted him to do this ridiculous thing, so ridiculous he couldn't even fathom he was being asked it, and she expected him to do it with no questions asked?

But the most ridiculous part about it was the fact that he stood there, stumped, genuinely considering taking her proposition.

 _So are you in or are you out, Blake?_

* * *

 **Thanks for reading! Please review!**

* * *

 **Guest:** Thanks for the review! Hope you enjoyed the update.

 **FloItaly:** Thanks so much! Here's the update, hope you liked it :)

 **narelclollie:** Thank you! Oh, believe me it's coming! Hope you enjoyed the chapter.

 **Samantha:** Thanks! Here it is, hope you enjoyed it.

 **GraceTM86:** Thanks! Haha, hopefully! Outside is in the works so sometime over the next few weeks! But this should hold you over until then :)

 **Guest:** I am so sorry, I have been meaning to update One More Night for a while now but unfortunately right now I am swamped with AP Summer Assignments and lots of things to get done before the semester starts. I will try my hardest to get something out within the next few weeks, but I am really happy you enjoy this story and that one! Hopefully I can get something out soon but thank you for your review and patience!


	4. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: Refer to Chapter 1.**

* * *

 **Chapter 3**

 _"Did you know that there are people who sleep with absolutely nothing on at all?"_

 _"I rejoice to say I do not."_

* * *

"I'm in."

Those words seemed so mistaken. Looking back, he realized that something had to be wrong. Maybe she had drugged him or charmed him or conned him? She had to have done something to him to make him say those words, because the next thing Bellamy knew, he was meeting Alessia outside the military dorms at 5:30 in the morning. It was day after she had approached him and requested (or maybe the better term was _bribed_ him) to take up her offer and drive her to New York.

"You're one of those annoying morning people, aren't you?" Private Blake nearly hissed at her as she put a small duffel bag into the trunk of his Jeep Wrangler. She glared at him, unimpressed.

"You're one of those annoying people who hate morning people, aren't you?" she retorted and slipped her hands into her pockets as she walked over to him. Bellamy sighed and rolled his eyes.

"This is going to be a long trip if all you do is come up with witty, half-baked comebacks."

"A long trip where you end up with three hundred thousand dollars. Suck it up, buttercup." Alessia shot him a bitter smile, but her insult had reminded him to check.

"So you wired the money into my account this morning?"

She climbed into the backseat of his Wrangler, which had the top up so that they could sneak out easily, all while scoffing. "Yes, Blake. Half of the money was transferred into your account this morning." When she was in a comfortable position, she turned to look at him pointedly. "Half. Because you don't get the other half until we come back and I'm satisfied with this trip."

Bellamy frowned. "I have a feeling that nothing satisfies you."

Alessia couldn't help herself. "I have a feeling you don't do much satisfying yourself."

He resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he walked around his car to the driver's seat and murmured to himself, "That's because you haven't experienced the satisfaction."

"What was that?" Alessia replied, realizing that he'd said something, but it had been fuzzy in her ears because she was lying on the bottom of the Jeep, covered with a black blanket that blended into the darkness of the morning and the interior of his car. Bellamy just laughed quietly to himself.

"Don't worry about it, Kane."

With that said, he put his car in reverse and took a deep breath to himself. Was he really doing this? Was he really going to leave Octavia behind for an entire week to take a spoiled officer's daughter and ruin his name for the rest of his life all for three hundred thousand dollars? Well, when the three hundred thousand dollars part came up, Bellamy didn't really see what was wrong with it. For that kind of money, he could buy him and Octavia two tickets to the Caribbean where they could live the rest of their days on an beach somewhere with no worries. He'd been assured by Alessia that his sister was being taken care of by a man named Lincoln, who was apparently the only adult Alessia trusted on camp. He was weary, but three thousand dollars was worth it.

"Psst," Alessia hissed at him from her crouched position at the back of his car. Bellamy snapped out of his internal debate and looked back at her as she cocked an eyebrow and prompted him towards the gearshift. "Snap out of it, Blake. We don't have all day."

Bellamy glowered at her and, without saying anything, he turned back to the front of his car and muttered, "This is gonna be a hell of a week."

But there was no turning back after that point. He backed out of his parking space and drove to the front gate in the darkness of the early morning where the sun hadn't even attempted to break out over the horizon just yet. He slowed at the gate and was greeted by two men in uniform, one of them by the gate operator and the other at his window. Bellamy gave them a polite, yet distant smile and leaned back in his seat comfortably.

"Private Blake," the man at the window said, who knew Bellamy from BCT earlier in the week. He seemed surprised to see Bellamy driving off. A small smile played on the soldier's lips. "Given up already?"

Bellamy forced a laugh. "No. Nah, I just need to run an errand for my sister." The soldier raised his eyebrow, and so Bellamy clarified with an uncomfortable cough. "Um...female things, I guess. I have a list."

His friend nodded quickly. "Right. Enough said. Let me just check your car real quick."

"Sure." Bellamy watched as the Private reached behind him and grabbed the flashlight from on the table in the small house by the gate. When he turned around, he clicked the light on and ran the shine along the side of the Wrangler, moving around the car to the other side before finally shining the light into the vehicle's backseat. Bellamy waited with a nervous tick in his chest as he watched the Private hesitate for a moment before raising his hand to the other man in the room to Bellamy's left. For a moment, Bellamy thought something was deeply wrong, but then the gate opened in front of him and the Private from his BCT classes gave Bellamy a quick, friendly smile.

"Make sure you come back in an hour. It's a new rule for new Privates." The Private banged his hand on the top of the car door and stepped out to allow Bellamy to take off from the gate. _This is it,_ Bellamy thought. _You can turn around, decide that you don't want to do this. Or you can cross that gate and do what you promised._

"Hey, Blake, what are you doing?" the Private in the gate operating room called out to him, confused. Bellamy looked over at the guy, realizing that he had hesitated too long.

There was a part of him that was yearning not to go through with it, perhaps the safer side of him. But whatever part of him that dominated decided to allow his foot to step on the gas pedal and speed away from the gate into the humid morning. Bellamy carefully watched in his rearview to make sure that they were no longer watching, and about a minute or two after speeding away from Fort Arkadia's boundaries, Alessia tossed the blanket off over her head, spitting out the hair that had clung to her mouth as a result of the confined space.

"Ugh. I can breathe," she commented dramatically as she lifted herself from the floor of Bellamy's car while he continued down the long strip of barren road. She laid a firm hand on his shoulder and hopped over the console to situate herself in the passenger seat, and while it was a messy affair, Bellamy didn't say anything. When she realized how quiet he was being, she turned to look at him and raised an eyebrow. "You okay? You choked back there."

"I didn't choke," he snapped. She waited for him as he looked distraughtly onto the road and then finally threw his hands up against the steering wheel. "What do you want me to say, Kane? I pretty much just ruined my whole fucking life back there! What if they find Octavia and...and throw her into social services or something?"

Alessia rolled her eyes. "Don't be so negative. I promised you Octavia would be taken care of, and she will be. She'll be waiting for you when we get back, as will the rest of your _absurdly_ huge sum of money that I'm paying you, and you'll never have to face Fort Arkadia again. I'll deal with the consequences on my own. They'll probably just declare you a runner and move on."

He turned to her. "You don't think they're going to put two and two together and realize you disappeared the same time I did?"

"You're overestimating how much my dad actually cares _._ "

"And if I'm not?"

She sighed. "Then you're overestimating his intelligence! Listen, I'm not paying you three hundred thousand dollars to _bore_ me to death on this vacation." He locked eyes with her as she stated seriously, "I want fun. You're supposed to be giving me fun."

He wanted to say something, perhaps the joke in the back of his mind, but after a while of trying to think of which one of the sayings he wanted to actually say aloud, he decided to close his mouth and sit there for a moment. After a while, Bellamy let out a rough sigh.

"You're a rotten princess, you know that?"

Alessia shook her head. "I don't agree with that. I'm not a princess at all."

"Yes, you are." Bellamy paused for a moment and she watched him as, after a while, he tapped his steering wheel and shook his head as well. "You know, what? You're right. You're not a princess."

"No?"

"No. You're fucking Robin Hood. And I'm goddamn Little John."

* * *

Kane would be lying if he said he didn't feel bad about what he had done to Alessia the day before. But on the same token, she had to learn her lesson at some point. He had endured 17 years of lying, cheating, stealing, and blatant disrespect for his authority. He knew that her mother's death was hard for her, but that didn't give his daughter the right to get away with anything and everything. He had already overlooked so many things, but PFC Mercer was the final straw. Not only was he upset that one of his men took advantage of his daughter, but he was more upset because he knew it was Alessia who most likely coerced Mercer into doing what she wanted. She was a sneaky one, and perhaps that was his fault for teaching her his tricks. He didn't realize it would turn out that way.

So, because he felt so bad, Kane decided he would do something nice. Well, 'nice' was stretching it. He went down to one of their neighbors and asked her if she had any dessert, because he knew Alessia had a sweet tooth. Sure enough, their neighbors (who Kane couldn't name even if he tried) had a piece of chocolate cake left over from their daughter's birthday the week before. It probably wasn't that good, but he figured it was the thought that counted.

"Alessia?" Kane called out as he knocked on his daughter's door softly. She didn't answer, of course, so he tried again. He'd already threatened her with jail, he wouldn't barge into her room quite yet. "Alessia, come on. Open the door and talk to me. I know you're upset, but this is just the way it is. I brought you something."

He tried again and again and again until finally, he knew there was something wrong. He knew his daughter too well. One push of the doorknob and he realized immediately: no one was inside. The bed was made, unslept in, and her room was cold. Kane scowled as he looked into the room with disappointment. What did he expect? Alessia never listened.

After being very quiet for a while, Kane went downstairs, threw the chocolate cake away, and grabbed his jacket. He headed out of the small town home and walked down the street to the first place he could think his daughter would be stupid enough to run off too.

"Marcus." Abby Griffin looked at the Lieutenant Colonel with surprise as she opened the door for him in the wake of his knock. Marcus gave the recently widowed Abby, Clarke's mother, a small, yet distant smile.

"Abby. I need to talk to Clarke, if it's okay."

Abby crossed her arms. She didn't like to be kept out of the loop. "Why? What's wrong?"

"I can't find my daughter."

Dr. Griffin laughed. "You can't... _find_ your daughter?"

Kane grimaced as he crossed his hands over his chest defensively and stared at her, waiting for Dr. Griffin to quit making fun of him and get him what he wanted. She could see that he was getting impatient, but she was hardly paying attention to what he wanted. Finally, her laughter died down, and she managed to call Clarke's name.

"You can talk to her," Dr. Griffin mentioned as she heard Clarke's footsteps down the stairs. "But Alessia isn't here. I can't believe you lost your child, Marcus."

"I didn't lose her, she ran away!" Kane tried, but Abby just walked away when Clarke came to the door. Immediately, when Clarke saw Kane, her eyes widened to the size of the moon, and from that moment, Kane knew she was hiding something.

"Yeah, no, Alessia's not here sorry!" Clarke tried, attempting to shut the door on Marcus before he could ask anything else. Before she was able to get the door closed, however, Marcus put his hand out and stopped the door from closing on him. Clarke was hardly strong enough to stop it, so she sighed and was forced to let the door swing back open.

"Clarke, where is she?"

"I-I don't know."

"...Clarke..."

"I don't!" Marcus opened his mouth, but Clarke stopped him. "Lieutenant, all I know is that she was upset over you discharging Calix...and that she was upset over you grounding her for the rest of her life. She also said something about jail, but I don't...I don't know." Clarke gave a sigh of defeat. "I'm sorry."

Kane squared his jaw. He wanted to interrogate her further, but he could see Abby behind Clarke with a look on her face telling him to back off. He knew that if he tried to say anything else, Abby would be at his throat with threats, the last thing that he needed. Kane exhaled heavily.

"Fine. If you find out anything, let me know." She didn't confirm his request as he stepped off her doorstep and went to go figure out where the hell his daughter was causing trouble. He returned to his office in the main building and called everyone he knew that was involved in their scandal, as well as whoever was involved with looking out for Calix Mercer. No one knew of anything, and finally, Kane came up completely defeated. About an hour or two later, around seven-thirty in the evening, he got a call from Shumway.

"What?" Kane barked into the phone. Shumway stuttered for a moment at Kane's urgent tone, but he finally spit it out.

 _"Sir, I just did a room check and no one is in room 134. I know that used to be PFC Mercer's room, but he'd recently gotten a new roommate. Someone down at the gate said the Private had gone off to get something for his sister earlier, but never came back."_

Kane leaned back in his chair. "What's his name, Shumway?"

 _"Bellamy Blake, Sir."_

* * *

The hours following their not-so-eventful prison break from Fort Arkadia was—and this is no exaggeration— _pure hell._

Despite the fact that they continued to argue every five seconds over frivolous things such as whether or not to have the top down, what they wanted for lunch, what the acceptable amount of time is before stopping for the bathroom _again_ , and things of that nature, Alessia's prison break day had turned into a storming of the heavens. It was no lie; the skies had opened up and a shit ton of water and hail flowed down as if it was a free-for-all. They had, in addition, been subjected to three detours and around 5 hours in traffic on I-95 North. By the time they were halfway through their adventure, it was already eight o'clock and it was downpouring. Rain flooded the streets and hail the size of golfballs attacked the Wrangler. At last, when it had gotten too difficult for Bellamy to handle he pulled his car into a motel parking lot, where he refused to continue any longer despite Alessia's protests.

"Look, if you die, I can't get the rest of my money," Bellamy rationalized. She scowled.

"If I'm not happy, you're not getting the rest of my money. What about that don't you understand?"

"The part where you're willing to let us get in a car crash to get to New York! Look, we'll stay here for the night and head up to the city in the morning. It's not far." She stayed where she was, unmoving, with only the sounds of the thundering rain around them breaking the silence. Seeing her stubbornness, Bellamy scoffed and shrugged at her as he grabbed his keys and his bag from the back. "Suit yourself, Robin Hood. This car isn't moving until tomorrow morning."

Without saying another word, he opened his car door and dived into the rain. When he shut the door, Alessia let out a frustrated groan before grabbing her own bag from the back and doing the same. The second she stepped out into the heavy rain, she was immediately drenched; every single part of her flooded in water. She ran as fast as she could to where Bellamy was underneath the awning right beside the motel office. When Alessia slowed down to catch her breath, Bellamy cracked a small, arrogant grin.

"Decided to join me?"

"Shut the hell up."

He frowned and nodded inside. "Come on."

Bellamy ushered Alessia into the cramped motel office as the mother and son before them left the office with their key. When they entered, Bellamy combed his wet hair with his fingers and walked up to the front desk as Alessia trailed behind him, trying to wring the water out of her thick brown hair.

"Hi, we need a room please. Two beds," Bellamy requested. The manager looked between him and Alessia as she finally caught up to Bellamy at the desk. The manager hissed sarcastically.

"Sorry, we just booked our last double."

Bellamy scowled. "What? This is a motel, right?"

" _Hotel_ ," the manager corrected, as if the word 'motel' made him so angry he could slap Bellamy just for saying it. Bellamy cocked an eyebrow.

"No, no. This is definitely—"

"A _hotel_. Yes, a hotel. This is a hotel." Alessia's eyes widened as she watched the manager give Bellamy a murderous glare, and Bellamy froze in his state as he watched the manager merely pressure him into saying 'motel' one more time so he could reach over and strangle his neck. Bellamy and Alessia shared a very concerned look at each other before turning back to the manager, whose murderous look turned on a dime and a smile overcame his face instead. "We do have one single bed left. Will that be okay for the night?"

"Absolutely not," Alessia objected at the same time Bellamy said, "Sure, whatever."

The both of them exchanged another glance, but Alessia crossed her arms at him. "I'm not sharing a bed with you."

"Fine. You can sleep on the floor, then." She was about to protest when Bellamy made her jump as he reached in her back pocket and grabbed her wallet to pay for the room. He reached inside and grabbed a fifty dollar bill and, while the manager began to enter his information into the computer, Bellamy handed Alessia back her wallet. She scowled at him.

"I am _not_ sleeping on the goddamn floor." She snatched her wallet back angrily as he laughed, almost amused by the idea that it would be any different. Bellamy scoffed at her.

"Um...yes you are."

"No, I'm not. You are."

"No, you—"

"Room 229," the manager interrupted them, handing Alessia and Bellamy a rusted key. A fake smile overcame the manager's crusty lips. "Enjoy your stay."

Alessia found it very difficult to break eye contact with the scary manager, but had no other choice when Bellamy immediately started out the door to find their room for the night. The two of them went out into the pouring rain, and didn't have a choice but to get soaked yet again when they had to run up the stairs, which weren't protected by an awning. It wasn't bad, though. When they finally walked into the motel room, Alessia found herself completely out of place in the run-down room that smelt as if there was mold baked into the walls. Bellamy, however, was unfathomed as he strolled right into the room and set down his keys. He didn't even pay attention as Alessia walked precariously into the smelly room she was not accustomed to.

"Fifty bucks for this hole in the wall?" Alessia muttered under her breath. Bellamy looked over at her with an unimpressed look.

"Sorry it's not up to your standards, Princess."

"I don't have standards," she snapped at him as she threw her hands over her chest defensively. "I would just rather be on the way to New York right now, thank you very much. So far, this is not my money's worth."

He rolled his eyes and turned to go into the bathroom. "You'll get to where you want to go, I promise. Just shut up and relax. How about trying to give that attitude a break, huh?"

She was about to protest to his rudeness, but he only shot her a sarcastic smile before kicking the bathroom door closed so he could wash the sweat off his skin from their prison break earlier. While she heard the leaky faucet running in the bathroom, Alessia sighed and let herself sit down on the bed that creaked the second she put any bit of weight on it. It was like she could smell the rust and rot around her, but she knew that she couldn't help anything. It would have to do.

That didn't mean she had to endure it. While Bellamy was still washing himself up, she left the motel room for a while to get a soda from the vending machine, sourly thanking whoever's idea it was to build a walkway to the soda and snack machines without an awning to protect them from the rain. She was soaked yet again, but at that point, she really didn't care. When she finally reached back into the room, she was about to go in when she saw a couple standing outside in the parking lot that caught her attention.

"There you are." Bellamy shouted over the rain as he walked out of the motel room while slipping his shirt over his head. Alessia didn't even look back to watch him as he let out a relieved sigh seeing her. "I thought you fucking ran off. It wouldn't be the first time."

"Relax. I went to get a soda." Alessia cocked her head at the couple down in the parking lot as the two of them laughed and kissed in the rain, looking as if they didn't have a care in the world. She watched them in wonder and possibly sadness thinking about the last few days of her life, the most horrible days she'd had in a while. Bellamy stared at her expression for a moment before finally moving his eyes to where Alessia was looking. He chuckled as he watched the couple in the parking lot display extraordinary amounts of PDA in a public parking lot.

"Idiots," he muttered. This caught Alessia's attention, and she looked over at him with a raised eyebrow, confused.

"Idiots?"

"The two morons are going to catch a cold." He gripped Alessia by her arm and pulled her with him. "So are you, standing out in this rain. Come on."

He dragged her inside, despite her fighting back against him, but she didn't really put up as much of a fight as she could have. When he closed the door and the thunder cracked above them, Alessia groaned frustratedly and spun around at him with her hands on her hips pointedly.

"You don't have one romantic bone in your body, do you?"

"None that you'll ever see." He brushed past her and went to plug his phone into the outlet next to the bed. "I'm going to bed. So should you, if you want to get up when it stops raining and head out again." Bellamy reached next to the bed and tossed an extra, limp pillow on the floor. Alessia gasped in anger as she watched him climb into the bed.

"Uh uh!" Alessia stomped forward and wagged a finger at him. "I paid for this goddamn room, I'm gonna sleep in the bed!"

"I'm risking my life to take a spoiled, no good brat to New York for a week." Bellamy looked at her in dismay. " _I'm_ gonna sleep in the goddamn bed."

"Well aren't you a real fucking gentleman, Bellamy Blake." With a pissed-off scoff, she stormed into the bathroom and locked the door to get herself cleaned up before she went to bed. As she marched off into the bathroom, Bellamy let out a frustrated sigh at her theatrics and listened as she ran the water to clean herself up. He realized quickly that he was probably being a dick to her. But can you blame him? There she was, ordering him around and shit when he was worried sick about Octavia with no way of knowing whether or not she was okay; he just had to trust Alessia, and that was a big step for him.

At last, he realized that being a dick to her wouldn't help anyone. As she finished up in the bathroom, he lifted himself out of bed and grabbed an extra blanket from the closet and laid down on the floor, no doubt ridden with cockroaches, and put his head down on the stained, weak pillow. When Alessia came out and saw Bellamy on the floor, she crossed her arms over her chest again and scoffed.

"Now you're being chivalrous?"

He turned his head up as far as he could and looked up to see her upside down in his vision, staring at him with disbelief. He pursed his lips.

"I do something nice to you and you're still being a bitch?"

Alessia stiffened and she uncrossed her arms apologetically. She mumbled under her breath as she slowly walked over to the bed. "Sorry."

Bellamy didn't respond. He heard the creaks of the floorboard as she tip-toed over to the bed and got inside, where it creaked some more for a few more minutes until Alessia finally got comfortable. At last, when it was silent in the room, Bellamy started to toss and turn as the rough carpet dug into his back. He wasn't sure, but he could feel something moving in the carpet underneath him. No matter what he did, he could not get comfortable. It got to the point where he got so frustrated that he lifted himself up from the floor, muttering "shit" under his breath as he stomped over to the bed. Alessia was still awake, and when she saw him looming over the other side of the queen-size mattress, she watched him scowl at her.

"Fuck it, I'm not sleeping on the floor."

"Well, neither am I."

"Fine then." He threw his pillow down on the bed and climbed onto it, making sure to stay over the covers so she didn't make a fuss. He could tell Alessia was uncomfortable, and she watched him cautiously as he tried to settle into the mattress, which felt like nothing but a piece of cardboard taped to rusted springs. When he was finally able to get himself situated, he turned his head to find Alessia still staring at him disapprovingly. "What? We both know it's not the first time you've slept in the same bed as a man before. The only difference is that this time you don't get the good part."

She frowned in the darkness. "You're an asshole."

"Just keep to your side of the bed and I'll keep to mine and it'll be fine." He turned himself over onto his side and tucked his hands underneath his head. Silence washed over them, but before he closed his eyes, he let out a frustrated breath. "Sorry I called you a bitch."

Bellamy waited for her to respond, and after a while, she murmured, "Well I kind of am one, so it's okay."

He chuckled quietly, as did she, but they continued to lay with their backs to each other, trying to resign themselves to opposite sides of the bed so they wouldn't touch. Bellamy tried to sleep, but for some reason, he couldn't. After a while, he heard Alessia's even breaths alongside the sound of the rain slowing down outside. He contemplated waking her up, but when he turned onto his back cautiously to sneak a peek at her, he couldn't bring himself to do it. It was strange, how peaceful someone could look while sleeping yet, during the daylight they were intolerable. Instead of waking her, he decided to enjoy the few hours of peace he could get.

So Bellamy slowly closed his eyes and drifted off into deep sleep, dreading the rest of the week with the self-proclaimed girl that was laying next to him in the same bed.

* * *

Octavia's leg was shaking so hard that she could feel the chair shaking with her. She was almost afraid that the chair would fall over at that rate. She was sitting in the principal's office at the small military school, and she couldn't help but think: _what the hell could I have possibly done? I've been here for, like, two days!_

They kept her waiting as long as possible, as if it were a waiting game. At last, someone entered the room, but she didn't recognize him. He looked official, and he also looked pissed off.

"Octavia Blake?" asked the urgent man. He looked down at her as she sat down in the chair, looking as if she was doing something incredibly wrong. Then, Octavia remembered that Clarke had told her whenever someone official greeted her, she had to salute. She didn't know how to salute, god damn it. But she did know how to stand. She rose from her chair faster than ever, about to kick it over, and tried her best to do an official salute to him.

"Um...yes...Sir?"

The military personnel turned quickly and leaned up against the front of the principal's desk. Octavia reluctantly sat down, shaking her leg again. The official before her sighed and crossed his arms angrily.

"My name is Marcus Kane, I'm the LTC here in Fort Arkadia and I have some questions for you." He looked down with sour eyes. "First of all, your brother, Bellamy Blake. Do you know where he is?"

"Bellamy?" Octavia repeated, confused. The LTC cocked an eyebrow as she scoffed. "No offense, but isn't that kind of your job?" When the LTC didn't laugh or say anything to her but merely waited for her to answer his question, she cleared her throat uncomfortably in a small voice and said, "No. No, Sir I haven't seen him since two days ago when we had lunch. It was...like, a two minute lunch."

Kane could tell she was peeved by it, but he didn't care. He merely pressed further. "Do you know my daughter, Alessia Kane? Was she involved with your brother at all?"

Octavia's eyes snapped up. "Wait, what the hell is going on? What happened to Alessia?"

"Answer the questions, Miss Blake."

"Not until you tell me what the hell is going on! Where's my brother? What did you do to him?"

Kane uncrossed his arms and stepped closer to Octavia. "Answer the question—"

"Not another word, Lieutenant." Octavia and Kane both turned to the door, where they watched a tall, dark-skinned man enter in jeans, a t-shirt, and oddly enough, a briefcase. Octavia raised her eyebrows in confusion as Kane straightened with fury. The man stopped and gave Kane a sly smile. "I believe you're breaking about a dozen rules here."

"I was only asking her a few questions," Kane defended himself. "There was no need for a social worker."

"Obviously there was." The darker man turned to Octavia with a gesture. "She's barely sixteen. You know you can't ask any questions without a guardian present, and since her only guardian is the man who ran away from the base yesterday, she's in my custody for the time being." The man nodded to Octavia. "Gather your things, Miss Blake. We're leaving." He turned back to the Lieutenant as Octavia reluctantly grabbed her things. "You can call me and we can schedule a meeting for your questions."

With that said, the man ushered Octavia out of the principal's office and took her down the hallways to leave the school. When they were finally outside, Octavia stopped in the middle of the walkway and turned to the man, who seemed just as suspicious and rude as Kane was. She shook her arm off of his hand and growled.

"Seriously? Look, I appreciate what you did in there, but who the hell are you? I don't need a social worker, my brother is my guardian."

The man turned around and frowned. "Did you not hear a word I just said in there? Your brother ran away yesterday morning. He's not coming back."

"You don't know Bellamy."

"No, but I do know things." Octavia stood and stared at him, waiting for an explanation. Instead, the man gave a frustrated sigh and gestured away from them. "Come on, Miss Blake. I can tell you everything when we get back to your building, but for right now, I'm going to need you to trust me."

Octavia paused to ponder what he said, and whether or not she actually did trust him. She watched as the man in front of her waited for her to say something, and finally, she crossed her arms and bit down on her lip.

"How can I trust you if I don't even know what your name is?"

The darker man smiled at her and let his eyes drop to the ground for a moment before he looked back up at her.

"Lincoln. My name is Lincoln."

* * *

She'd wasted no time in the morning dragging Bellamy's ass out of the rotten bed, getting his shit together, and forcing themselves out of the motel/hotel as soon as they could. Bellamy wasn't too happy with waking up at the ass crack of dawn to drive all the way out to New York, but he forced himself to do it anyways, for the sake of the money and all. They drove the rest of the way to New York, thankfully with no interruptions. Alessia was a little peeved that Bellamy had decided to put the top down on his Wrangler, but he had argued that it was a pretty day outside, it was his car, and he did whatever the hell he wanted and wouldn't listen to her anyways. She conceded on that one, but as much as she bitched about the wind messing up her hair, it was all worth it.

Because two hours later, they were driving across the bridge that took them to New York City, and the sight before her could not be replicated. They'd made it. And now was the time to start her glorious adventure.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading! Please review! I'm taking short break after this chapter, so the next update won't be until September 9th!**

* * *

 **narelclollie:** Thanks! Shirtless Bellamy is my fav :) Yeah, the attraction is pretty obvious, and it'll only get more apparent as we go on. Aw, yeah, he'll eventually figure it out once he gets to know her better! Thanks for reviewing.

 **Guest:** I'm really trying, it's just hard to motivate myself right now. But I just finished watching Season 7 of TVD so I'm looking forward to writing it soon. However, school is rapidly approaching and summer assignments need to get done so it may take a while! I appreciate the patience, though :)


	5. Chapter 4

**Due to some delays on editing these next few chapters and lots of distractions due to college essays and school starting up again, I'm delaying Chapter 5's release until November 4th at 9PM. Sorry for the extensive hiatus, but there are some priorities I have to fulfill!**

 **Disclaimer: Refer to Chapter 1.**

* * *

 **Chapter 4**

 _"I-I'd do just whatever I liked the whole day long."_

* * *

Clarke rubbed her hands together nervously as all her friends stared at her with incredulous eyes at the words that had just escaped her mouth. Jasper, Monty, Finn, and Raven were all crowded around her with their undivided attention while still trying to process what Clarke was attempting to explain to them. They were all sitting outside on the bleachers surrounding their small football field. It was during lunch time, where most of the kids sat in the commons area back at the school, but they were the group that always went down to the field to eat.

"What do you mean she's gone?" Raven retorted in disbelief. Finn ignored his girlfriend and turned to Clarke, his eyes wide.

"Do you know where she went?"

"No. Well...not for sure, anyways." She turned her eyes up towards Raven. "The only thing I know was that she was ranting to me, Raven, and Octavia two days ago about wanting to get the hell out of here. Octavia mentioned something about New York, but how would she even get there?"

Raven paced, walking the bleacher line as she thought to herself. "She did seem pretty worked up when Octavia started talking about New York. But, Jesus, would the girl be that stupid? Her dad is going to hunt her down!"

"What if she didn't run away?" Jasper asked with an extreme, contagious amount of paranoia as he bit down on his nails, an old habit of his. "What if someone took her and what if we're sitting around talking about how stupid she was to run away when she's in the back of someone's trunk!"

A dead silence fell upon all of them as everyone turned to look at Jasper as he exploded in the dramatic scenario. For a while, he didn't realize he was being watched, but when he did, he looked up at them with a sheepish smile. "Who are we kidding? It's Alessia. She ran."

They all removed their eyes, but concurred. Clarke sighed. "Even if she did run away, I'm worried about her. Ever since she got in trouble with Kane..."

"What did she get in trouble for?" Monty asked. Raven crossed her arms as she continued to pace on the bleachers.

"She said she couldn't tell us, like it was some big secret or something but I know what it was." Clarke looked up at her with a cocked eyebrow, and when Raven saw the confusion, she threw her hands up. "Come on, Clarke! Like the LTC would let PFC Mercer fool around with his daughter behind his back. What probably happened was, Kane had Calix transferred to another base, Alessia got pissed, and she ran away to see him."

"But that doesn't make sense," Finn pointed out. "If it's that easy to figure out for us, Kane would've figured that out the second she ran away. I don't think that's where she is."

"Has anyone tried calling her?" Jasper suggested. Clarke nodded.

"She's not answering her phone. I've left so many messages, I've lost count." The blonde exhaled nervously. "I don't know but wherever the hell she is, she needs to get back fast. Kane's lost his mind. He tried to harass Octavia because her brother went missing yesterday morning, too."

"What if he kidnapped her?!" Jasper shouted, earning everyone's attention again. This time, he realized the theatrics in his comment, so he slouched and cleared his throat. "I'll try to dial down the dramatics, but seriously. What if Octavia _and_ her brother are psychopaths?" He paused. "No, Octavia's too pretty to be a psychopath. But what if her brother _is_?!"

Raven smiled. "Her brother's too pretty to be a psychopath, too."

Finn rolled his eyes. "Still here, Raven."

"I was just appreciating." She hopped off the bleachers and moved over to Finn, fitting herself in between Finn and Clarke to kiss her boyfriend on the cheek. "Come on, you need to quit being jealous. I was making a joke." She looked around at her group of friends. Finn caught Clarke's gaze as she dropped her eyes and shifted away from Raven as quickly as she could. Raven sighed. "From the looks of it, we need a joke or two around here. Guys, I don't understand why you're so panicked. We _know_ Alessia. She's fed up with being in this hellhole, she probably took a vacation and didn't tell anybody. She'll be back."

They all tried to find comfort in Raven's words, but they just didn't know. Everything seemed out of control.

* * *

They'd gotten into New York and checked into the Hilton quickly enough that Bellamy earned some major points with his female counterpart. After dropping off their stuff in their suite, paid for by Alessia with the blood money she had stolen, he decided to plan their day straight away, knowing that she wasn't too happy with him for having them stop at the motel/hotel. He had to find a way to make it up to her so he could make use of the whole plan and get his money. After everything he was putting himself through, he wasn't going to go back to Octavia empty handed.

"You want to do tourist-y things or you want to do the real stuff?" Bellamy asked, peaking up at her as he looked on his phone to map their destinations. Alessia grabbed a mini bottle of vodka that was in the fridge. As she popped the cap open, she shrugged.

"Both? I mean, we do have a week."

"Well, I was thinking we could go up to the Hamptons for one day. New York can get boring after a while..." He smiled sourly. "We wouldn't want that, would we?" She smiled back at him with the same amount of bitterness as she tipped back the mini vodka bottle and let it burn all the way down her throat. Bellamy frowned. "You know, just because we pulled a prison break yesterday doesn't suddenly make you twenty-one."

She put the bottle on the table and wiped her mouth before shaking her head. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Robin Hood, don't fuck with me. I know you're only eighteen."

"But am I really?" Alessia asked wearily. He cocked an eyebrow as she smiled and pulled out her wallet so that she could flash him the fake ID she'd had made for her nearly a year ago back at Fort Arkadia whenever her and her friends had snuck off the base to go to one of the bars down in the city. Bellamy sighed.

"I should've known." He put his head in his hands and sighed heavily. "What the hell did I get myself into?"

"Three hundred thousand dollars cash, that's what you got yourself into." She patted him on the back as she grabbed her bottle of vodka and turned to go into their room. "Figure out what we're doing, I'm gonna go get changed."

He mumbled at her as she exited, but he wasn't even sure what he said. The girl was giving him a headache already and he hadn't even spent two whole days with her. But he kept telling himself that he was doing it for the right reasons, to provide a future for him and Octavia, even if it was on a secluded island somewhere away from American authorities. Oh, who was he kidding? He knew it was stupid to do something so disruptive, especially involving the LTC's daughter. But did he really want to spend two years of his life working for the US Army in hopes of eventually making enough money to sustain him and his sister? The answer, when faced with a lump sum of $300,000, was no.

By the time Alessia showered and changed out of the dirty clothes she'd had on since they escaped from Fort Arkadia, Bellamy had already had everything planned and changed, himself, in the shower in the adjoining room of their suite. As Alessia grabbed her shoes and watched Bellamy slip a shirt over her head, she scoffed.

"I knew there was a reason my water was cold."

He glared up at her. "I'm surprised her Highness didn't throw a tantrum over it."

She rolled her eyes, but chose not to dignify his tease with a response. Instead, she stomped her boots on and lifted herself up from the couch as she grabbed her purse and slid her phone inside. She'd turned it on airplane mode and disabled the trackers on her phone (something she'd thankfully had Monty teach her in the third grade) so that she could not be bothered with her other life. While Bellamy put his own shoes on, Alessia crossed her arms over her crop top and looked at him cautiously.

"So...where are we going?"

He slipped one sneaker on and looked up at her with a smile, and this time it was genuine, but still mocking. "You'll find out soon enough, won't you?"

She grimaced. "Why do you have to be so secretive about it?"

"Because, Robin Hood." He lifted himself from the chair and shrugged. "You're paying me three hundred grand to take you on the trip of your lifetime all around New York City. I've lived in New York for eighteen years, since I was five. I've got this."

"You're saying that like I trust you or something." He scowled at her as she smiled and shrugged carelessly, gesturing her hand out for him to go first. He kept his glower on his face as he brushed past her and walked to the suite door, where he didn't even bother holding it open for her or waiting, he just stepped out and let her find her own way. Bellamy sighed to himself.

 _I can't believe I agreed to this._

Their first stop wasn't that unusual. It was in the farthest direction, so they could work themselves back up to where they were staying. Now that Alessia presented Bellamy with her fake ID, he knew he would have to take her to a club at some point, but he was going to leave that for later. The thing was, he'd already done so many illegal things, what was the point anymore? There was no use in fighting it any longer.

"You didn't even buy tickets?" Alessia asked as they shuffled in the line to get tickets to the top of the building, which was thankfully open pending the weather. Bellamy shuffled with her and sighed.

"I'm sorry, you didn't give me two weeks notice of when you were going to bribe me into ruining my life so that I could take you to New York."

She pursed her lips into a frown. Alessia knew he was right, and she could tell that she was irritating him even more. Despite what he may think, she didn't take him on the trip to irritate him. She figured it was about time they started to play nice, otherwise her trip to New York wouldn't be as good as she wanted it to. Alessia sighed with a nod.

"Okay. Fine, I get that." Before she could say anything else, she heard her stomach growl painfully, and that's when she remembered she hadn't eaten anything since they'd stopped on the road an hour or two before getting to the motel/hotel. Bellamy, and pretty much anyone who was in a two hundred feet radius, heard the growl, and Alessia's eyes widened as she tried to remain calm. When the growl subsided, Bellamy chuckled so hard, she thought he was going to fall over. Her eyes flickered over to him, cutting through him like a knife.

"I-I'm sorry," he laughed. She continued to glare. "I am! I totally forgot that we haven't eaten. But to be fair, I did tell you to grab one of those croissants in the lobby."

"Yeah, whatever. What the hell are we going to do? I am not leaving this line," she determined, gesturing to the hoards of people behind them that would take their spot if they gave it up. Bellamy looked around for a moment before inhaling sharply.

"How about you stay here? If you get the tickets, wait for me. I'll go grab us some lunch." He smiled down at her. "You haven't had New York pizza, have you?"

"Um...unless you'd call the pizza in Lexington up to New York standards."

"Nothing's up to New York standards unless you're _in_ New York." He said it matter-of-factly, as if she were supposed to know that based on all of her experience in the field. She waited as he paused for a moment and tilted his head with a shrug. "Well, maybe Jersey pizza could hold up, but it's still not as good."

"Bellamy..." Alessia hissed as she felt her stomach growl again. Bellamy looked down at her and shook the daze off.

"Right! Food." Her stomach growled at the mention of it, and he stepped out of line with a nod. "I'll be back in a few."

"I'm not going anywhere," she muttered under her breath as she looked at the line before her, the huge line it was. She crossed her arms over her chest in an attempt to muddle the sound of the painful stomach growls, but she could tell that everyone heard them. As the line moved forward, she got more anxious, but at last, when they were about ten or twelve families away from the ticket counter, Bellamy returned into the building with two slices of pizza in his hand. He'd already started to dig into one of them, and he shoved the other one to Alessia without hesitation. She took it and felt her stomach growl at the size of the juicy piece of pepperoni pizza. "Shit, this looks delicious."

"It is. Try it, Robin Hood. But I have to warn you..." Bellamy held up a finger to her as she was just about to bite into the tip. She could feel the grease coming out of the other side of the pizza and wondered why the hell she thought it would be a good idea to wear a white shirt. He stared at her while she froze and he continued, "...once you taste New York pizza, your life will never be the same."

"My life will never be the same regardless," she shrugged it off and bit into the pizza hungrily. He snickered to himself and ate his own slice as he watched Alessia's face light up with pure joy. "Holy fucking shit! This is...this is..."

"Amazing," he finished.

"Amazing. Hell, it's better than sex," she concurred as she took another hefty bite. He raised his eyebrows and watched her devour the pizza. "Oh, my God. Oh, my _God_."

"Careful, Kane." He looked around them to see the weird looks from the parents of young children, both surprised and disgusted at her moans. Alessia had shut her eyes, though, and she didn't care. They moved up in line as Bellamy turned to her and whispered, "I don't think your moaning is appreciated in the Empire State Building."

"Who the hell cares?" she whined as she took another bite. Bellamy couldn't help but laugh and enjoy the loosed up Alessia, the one who wasn't always complaining about not getting what she wants. He could get used to it. Maybe.

Just as Alessia finished the first half of her pizza, still moaning and groaning and causing a scene, a security guard from behind them came up and tapped Alessia on the shoulder. She broke away from her love-fest with her slice of pizza to look at the guard innocently. He gave her a friendly, yet pissed off smile as he pointed to the pizza and gestured over his shoulder.

"Ma'am, I know that you're...err, enjoying the pizza and all, but we can't have food in here. That goes for you too, Sir." His eyes flickered to Bellamy, but it was right as Bellamy finished up his last bite.

Alessia turned to the security guard and gave him a charming smile. "I'm so sorry. We've just been driving all night and I haven't had anything to eat since yesterday—"

"I understand that. Really, I do. But I'm gonna need you to get rid of it." There it was, that wonderful New York charm.

"Get rid of it?" she repeated. The guard nodded, and she could tell he was getting agitated now. The line moved forward, and as Bellamy stepped forward, Alessia was held back with the pizza. Finally, she shrugged and crumpled up the plate her hand before shoving the rest of the pizza down her throat, earning some very confused and widened stares from the other tourists in the building. The security guard watched her with his mouth practically slack-jawed, and when she had finished without leaving a single drop on her, she smiled to herself and dusted her hands off before handing the plate to the security guard, who reluctantly took it. "Think you could get rid of that for me? Thanks!"

She didn't even wait for the security guard to respond. Instead, she left his side and walked over to Bellamy, who had his arms crossed over his chest and a surprised look on his face. Alessia stepped into the line next to him and tossed her hair over her shoulder, checking her shirt to make sure there was no grease on it. Bellamy stared down at her and waited as she looked up at him with her nose scrunched.

"I don't have any grease on my face, do I?"

"Damn, Alessia," Bellamy breathed, ignoring her question. She raised an eyebrow. "That was nearly half a slice of pizza. How did you...?"

"I was hungry..." she shrugged and, as she stepped forward so that they were next in line for the tickets, Alessia threw a look over her shoulder at Bellamy with a smile. "Makes you think about all the other things I can do with my mouth, huh?"

His eyes exploded to twice the size they were before at her sly comment, but before he could say anything, one of the women working at the ticket counter called Alessia next, and he had no choice but to follow her.

About fifteen minutes later, after dropping another $60 each on VIP passes, they were finally on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building. Of course, the first thing she did when she got up there was snap a few pictures with her deadbeat Nikon camera—a safer bet than her camera roll, which might have ended up in the cloud and subsequently letting her father know where she was. When she was done taking pictures, she walked over to the observatory lenses, fully aware that Bellamy was merely standing in the back as bored as he could be. As she looked through the lenses at the beauty that was NYC, she muttered to him, "What? You've done this before so it suddenly became uninteresting?"

Bellamy stepped forward, letting a couple pass by him first. He walked over to Alessia and stood by the lenses and looked out, enjoying the breeze. "Actually, I've never been up here before."

Alessia lifted her head to look at him, surprised. "Wait, what?"

He nodded. "New York residents don't usually do the tourist-y things. My mom always planned to take me and Octavia here, but something always came up. Eventually she just stopped promising to take us."

"Parents and their empty promises. Don't I know it."

He scowled. "Don't compare your perfect life to my shitty one. I bet you grew up with no worries whatsoever...not about money, not about bills, nothing. Your dad may be a dick to you, but that doesn't make you suddenly understand where I came from."

Alessia was tired of arguing with him to the point where she was angry, so instead of meeting his furious tone, she sighed in exasperation. Around her, foreign tourists gasped and gawked at the city skyline with their selfie sticks and high-resolution cameras. "Don't pretend to know what my life is like, either, then. You don't know the first thing about me."

"I think I know enough," he sighed as he walked around her and took a look around. "Spoiled princess hates her father for holding on too tight. It's the same old shit."

"At least you had Octavia." She turned to find him so close to her that her breath was practically in his face. He froze for a moment, lost in her eyes. "I may not have had the burden of bills, but you don't know what type of person my dad was. I bet your mom was sweet, caring, kind. You can call me a spoiled princess for hating my dad, but I was still alone. You had a sister, someone to share everything with. At best, I had Clarke."

"Clarke?"

"My best friend. She lives across the street." Alessia lifted herself from the lenses and stepped away. "If it weren't for her, I don't know how I would've survived all those years with my dad. Don't pretend to know what it's like living with the Lieutenant. I don't doubt you and I have different definitions of hell, but that was mine."

He wanted to say something to her, but instead, he found it best not to. Deciding not to carry on the conversation, Bellamy instead leaned down into the observatory lenses and witnessed what Alessia had seen. It was beautiful, the tops of the skyscrapers that barely measured to the one they were standing on. He could see the rich blue color of the sky, and the puffy white clumps of clouds. He could see the horizon and the people, the tiny specks of life that were scattered across the streets. In the air, it didn't seem like there were that many people in New York, but he knew better. The city was cluttered. It was hard to think of that view when he knew what was on the ground. However, it was nonetheless mesmerizing.

"Oh, wow." Bellamy tore his eyes away from the lenses to get an overshot of what he'd just seen. Alessia was staring off into the distance, enjoying the wind as he had before. They were both quiet. "I should've done this sooner."

Alessia chuckled under her breath. "You sound pretty calm for someone who'd just had his life ruined."

Bellamy turned his head to her and locked eyes. She didn't expect his eyes to be so full of life, but they were. She didn't really look into his eyes like that before. He smirked at her, but said nothing. He didn't have to.

* * *

Clarke found herself desperate to keep her mind off of Alessia. What if Jasper was right? What if Alessia was really in trouble and they were all just playing it off as if she were having fun in the sun somewhere? She couldn't stop thinking about the possibility that the new Private had abducted her, but when she really thought about it, she realized how ridiculous that was. Even though she'd only seen the Private around, she knew his sister. Octavia wasn't that kind of person, and really, what would Private Blake have to gain? But still, it had to be deeper than her just wanting to take a vacation. If Alessia were going somewhere, she would tell her, right?

This worry is what led Clarke to the library, as she needed a quiet place to pick out a medical book and read through it peacefully. Their school library wasn't huge, but it would do the job. There were several medical journals, most of them from her mom's recent years, but others from combat years before her father was transferred to Fort Arkadia as Head Engineer. It had been a year since his death and she missed him—she missed him so much.

"Clarke."

Clarke jumped at the sound of her name, even though it was whispered because of the library rules. She was in the way back, though, and given her recent paranoia about Alessia, she was scared as hell. When she turned around to look at the culprit, however, she found herself relieved that it was only Finn. Scratch that. On second thought, as she looked at him, her shoulders tensed and she tried to get away from him as quickly as possible.

"We shouldn't be talking," she murmured under her breath as she practically ran in the other direction. Before she could, Finn reached out and gently grabbed her wrist.

"Clarke, please. Don't do this. Talk to me." Clarke found herself suddenly unable to move as he stepped forward. His eyes were locked on hers, and she couldn't bring herself to look away. _Wrong. Wrong. This is so wrong._ "I know you're upset about Alessia. I can see it. Talk to me, please."

She shook her head. "There's nothing to say, Finn."

"Clarke..."

"No." Clarke tried to get him off of her, and although Finn obliged and let her wrist go, she felt like there was an uncomfortable gust of cold wind where his hand had been before. Finn stared at her with sorrowful eyes. "I can't talk to you, Finn. I just can't."

"Why not?"

"Because we had sex!" she nearly shouted, but then remembered that she was in a library and that she wasn't supposed to say it aloud. Finn swallowed thickly as she dropped her eyes. "And then you decided you wanted to get back together with Raven. You made your decision, Finn. There's nothing else to say."

"That's not how it happened and you know it." He shook his head at her while she tried to avoid his eyes desperately. "Clarke, when we were together, I really thought it was over with her. When she came back, I couldn't bring myself to say no, you have to understand."

That just made Clarke angrier. Instead of the forgiveness that Finn looked in her eyes for, he only saw fury. "What do you want to hear from me? That I forgive you? That I understand why you had to go back to her? I'm not going to tell you those things!"

Finn was about to say something, but he watched as Clarke turned her head and, out of the rage she felt for the betrayal that felt as if it'd happened all over again. Just a few months ago, while on Christmas break, when Raven was with her mother on a short trip to visit their family, Finn and Clarke had met up one day to go over some biology material that he wasn't understanding and needed to fix before the final. Before they knew it, they were both sucked into the deep abyss of lust for each other, spiraled by Finn's prior fight with Raven, who had mentioned to him that she was thinking about asking the LTC to enlist after she was done with Arkadia as a mechanic stationed overseas. He'd thought it was over for good, and so when one thing led to another, they were both in over their heads when Raven came back. She apologized to Finn and told him that she wanted to work it out because she loved him, and the worst part was, it was right in front of Clarke. When he'd told her that he'd try again, Clarke's heart nearly ripped in half. With Finn looking at her so intimately in the present, it only made that heartbreak resurface.

"Clarke." Finn stepped forward and reached out to brush a tear off of her cheek with his finger. She hadn't realized she had started crying, but she knew full well that she didn't want Finn to touch her. If he touched her, she wouldn't want him to stop.

"No..."

"Clarke, please. Talk to me." And before he knew it, he leaned forward and kissed the tear that rolled down her face, and she couldn't help herself anymore. All of her self-control went out the window, and she found herself unwilling and unable to stop it when his lips moved onto hers. Clarke couldn't handle it anymore. With all the paranoia surrounding Alessia, with the pain she felt after Finn had broken her heart, she couldn't bear to stop it. She let him kiss her, and she let it consume her. He pressed her up against the bookshelf, which was so far in the back that they were positive no one could see. But just as Clarke's hands moved between their bodies to unbuckle Finn's belt, they heard a gasp beside them in their compromising position. Finn and Clarke immediately broke away to see Jasper, frozen at the end of the row with his eyes as wide as the goggles on his head.

"Jasper—" Finn began, but he lost his words. Clarke opened her mouth to say something, but the sight of seeing Jasper so shocked, as if he was a child who'd just found his father was cheating on his mother with another woman...which wasn't too far off. Finally, after a few seconds of painstaking silence, Jasper looked around, avoiding Finn and Clarke's gazes as he swallowed back the bile in his throat.

"This isn't the comic book section..." he trailed off and scurried away. Although Finn and Clarke tried to call him back, there was no use. The two of them looked at each other with caught eyes, but there was nothing they could do to fix it.

* * *

"I can't believe you fucking dragged me around to every store you could find on 34th street," Bellamy complained as the two of them walked into their suite later in the afternoon. He was carrying all of her shopping bags, nearly a suitcase full of clothes and shoes that she didn't even need. He set them down on the dining table when he had his first chance and flopped down on the couch. "That was the most painful experience of my life. Also another thing I've never done in New York, but I would never do that again. Ever."

"Don't be so dramatic. Look, we're not even done yet." Bellamy let out a small whine as she said the words and looked up at her with an exhausted expression. She leaned against the back of the dining table chair and laughed softly. "No, we're done with shopping. For today, at least." Alessia reached into her purse and grabbed a brochure for an art gallery a few blocks down from the Hilton. "But there's a showcase today, I want to go."

Bellamy frowned. "Art? Really? Come on, Robin Hood, I know you're in New York and everything but you don't need to get all cultural on me. We both know you're not capable of it."

"There you go again, pretending that you know me, Blake."

"Well, I don't have to know you to know that you don't like art."

Alessia opened her mouth, but again, she didn't even want to dignify the judgement with a response. Instead, she grabbed her purse and slid the long strap over her shoulder and crossed her arms at Bellamy. "Whatever. Luckily for you, I had a really good day with minimal complaining from you...well, up until now, of course. So I don't really care if you want to go with me or not, you can do whatever you want for a few hours. The show starts soon so I'm gonna head over now."

Bellamy lifted himself from the couch and leaned over his knees with a confused look. "Wait. I didn't mean it, I'll come with you."

She shook her head at him. "Seriously, just stay here. I would like to enjoy my art in peace, actually."

Bellamy thought about denying her request for him to stay there, but then he realized that he really didn't even want to go anyways. He wanted to do something else, but he didn't want Alessia to know about it, so this was his perfect excuse. So he didn't say anything as she walked out of the suite to go to her art exhibit, and fifteen minutes later, when he was sure that she was far enough away that she wouldn't be able to see him go out as well, he left the suite and took the extra key with him. He didn't bother with walking, and didn't feel like taking his Wrangler out of the hotel garage, so he hailed a cab to take him to the lower east side, where his home had been for eighteen years. But he didn't want to visit his home; no, he took the cab driver a little further down, to a cemetery that surrounded the border between the residential neighborhoods and the streets of his hometown.

He kept the meter running, despite his better judgement, but realized he'd already had $150,000 in his bank account because of the funds transfer. He didn't have to worry about money anymore, and that was new for him. Regardless, he walked up to the cemetery with a small bouquet of carnations in his hands that he had picked up from the Hilton's lobby, despite how ridiculously expensive they were. After about a minute or two walk into the cemetery, he found the tombstone he was looking for.

 _In loving memory of_ _Aurora Blake_

 _1976-2011_

Bellamy lowered himself onto his knees as he set the carnations by the head of the stone. He looked right at the tombstone, seeing the generic writing made him sick to his stomach. There was nothing generic about his mother. He missed her so much every day that it hurt him inside to think about it, but he had to move on. He had to take care of his sister. All of his hopes and dreams of going to college once he turned 18 were shattered when his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer and died within a few short months. Instead of shipping out to Clemson University, where he'd been accepted for an athletic scholarship, he had to unenroll so that he could pick up two jobs and provide for him and his sister. Two years later, he couldn't handle it anymore, so he enlisted. He didn't regret it, but he wished his mother was still alive. Everything would've been so much different.

Bellamy didn't say a word the entire time he was there. He wasn't much of a talker. He payed his respects, touched his mother's tombstone, and then turned to go back to the cab. The cab driver gave him a few moments to collect himself before taking him back to the Hilton, but Bellamy didn't need it. He'd spent so much time trying to be strong for his sister that it'd became a natural part of him.

Meanwhile, Alessia was walking around the art gallery, sipping a glass of champagne, wondering why the fuck she hadn't listened to Bellamy when he told her she didn't like art. He was right, and maybe it was because of that she wanted to stick it to him. Regardless, she was stuck at the art gallery, otherwise it'd look rude if she up and walked away. She had to admit, though, the paintings on the wall were pretty. She didn't know what the hell they were supposed to represent, but they were sure as hell colorful. But she knew, to the average gallery-goer, she looked like a lost puppy wandering around.

"You look like you could use another." Alessia turned her head to see a man walking towards her, picking up two empty champagne glasses from a tray that was passing by. She looked to her hand and saw that she actually was out of her champagne. The man walked up to her and gave her a full glass while she put her empty one on a passing try. She smiled at him.

"Thanks."

"Art is an...acquired taste." The man sighed and turned to the painting they were standing in front of. "I, unfortunately, don't have that taste."

Alessia chuckled. "I guess you already deduced that I don't, either."

"Something we have in common, then." She peeked at him through the corner of her eye as the man beside her turned to her and smiled before extending his hand. "Cage Wallace."

She turned to him as she sipped her champagne and shook his hand. "Alessia Kane." The young girl paused as her mind mauled over his name. "Wait a second. Wallace, as in..."

"As in Dante Wallace." Cage sighed heavily as he looked around the studio with a caught look. "Yeah, the artist's my father. Don't tell anyone, though, because the next thing I know, I'll have people popping up next to me asking for an original. Trust me, it's more common than you'd think."

Alessia laughed, although there was something about Cage that she wasn't sure about. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that she'd only lost the man she'd loved to military prison a few days ago and was now flirting with some random guy at an art gallery, but she realized that there was no harm in it. She was in New York, and what happened there would stay there and she could feel guilty about it later.

"Art's not really my thing. I like to look though."

"Me too. Although when you have to look at it for your entire life, it gets pretty boring. I have to come to them, though. Otherwise, the old man gets grouchy."

"Tell me about it." Alessia snickered. "I don't think I can remember the last time my Dad wasn't grouchy at me...for no reason at all."

"Parents, right?" Cage agreed with a smile on his lips. Alessia nodded as she took another sip out of her champagne glass. Cage looked at her for a moment, and although she found it a bit uncomfortable, she didn't blame him. Even at Arkadia Academy, she had every guy turning their heads. She'd gotten used to it after a while. "Hey, you know, my dad's having a showcasing at the MET on Thursday—"

Alessia nearly choked on her drink. "The MET?"

Cage paused for a moment, a small smile coming over his face. "Like how I casually slipped that in there?"

"Very smooth."

"I know." He chuckled. "Anyways, I have to go to it. If you want, you could stop by. It might make my night more interesting." Cage hesitated, watching Alessia as she waited for him to continue, knowing that he wasn't done. Eventually, he continued, "Or...if you'd prefer sooner, I'm free for dinner tomorrow night."

The brunette girl grinned. "You work fast."

"I prefer not to waste time."

"I like that." She pursed her lips. Alessia didn't know if she felt comfortable or not going out with someone so soon after Calix, but she realized quickly that it was her only chance to go out with someone who hadn't grown up in the isolated Fort Arkadia. This was her only opportunity. So, she nodded. "Alright. Yes to the MET on Thursday."

"And to dinner...?"

She hesitated, thinking about it some more, but her brain disconnected from the smart, rational part of her as she held out her hand for Cage's phone. He seemed to get the hint, and he unlocked the device before handing it to her. She opened the contacts app and entered her information at Cage's disposal. Let him decide.

"I'll be in town for a few more days, but I think my friend is going to take me up to the Hamptons, so tomorrow night would probably be the only night that'll work," she suggested as she finished the champagne in her glass and set it down on a silver tray that was stopped in front of her. Cage's lips turned up into a lustful smile as she grinned at him and backed away. "Call me."

"Oh, I intend to," Cage told her as she turned around and left the studio, having had enough for one day. When she was outside, she let herself laugh for a moment, enjoying the summer New York air and the city life that surrounded her. She could get used to that, being out in the city around people twenty-four/seven, meeting new people every day.

Small town life just wasn't for her. New York was.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading! Please review.**

* * *

 **narelclollie:** Haha, they do love to bicker...we saw that a lot more in this chapter too! I'm in love with Lincoln and Octavia so they're gonna have a major part in this story as well. Thanks for the review!


	6. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter.**

* * *

 **Chapter 5**

 _"I'm a good liar too, aren't I, Mr. Bradley?"_

 _"The best I ever met."_

* * *

Bellamy watched with incredulous judgement as Alessia sat down at their table early in the morning with a mimosa in her hand and a plate of scrambled eggs, courtesy of the hotel's executive breakfast they had access to. It wasn't so much the food that he was judging but rather the alcoholic beverage at her fingertips. Alessia ignored his glare as she sipped the concoction and began to eat her breakfast, but he wouldn't let it go.

"It's like eight in the morning, Robin Hood."

She shrugged carelessly and shoveled a forkful of eggs into her mouth. "It's five o'clock somewhere."

"You know, that's what alcoholics say." He bit into his piece of toast and shot her a bitter smile as the teenager in front of him gave a serious look of disapproval. As she went back to eating her breakfast, he sighed and sipped his water before changing the subject. "So, what are we doing today? I was thinking we'd go over to Little Italy and Chinatown. Or, we could go to Central Park."

"Can't we do both?"

"We could. We have all day, right?"

"Uh huh..." But she was barely listening, as Alessia felt her burner phone buzz in her pocket and quickly whipped it out. She continued to eat, starving because she barely had dinner the night before because she had gone to the art gallery, where all they'd had was wine and cheese. Speaking of, when she looked at her phone in the midst of a huge bite of scrambled eggs, she saw a text from Cage Wallace, the man she'd met the night before at his father's showcase. A smile formed over her lips as she read the address of a restaurant and a note attached telling her to meet him at 5:00 by the front doors. Alessia opened her mouth to tell Bellamy a change in plans, but before she could, someone came up to their table.

"How is everything?" asked the hotel employee, a twenty-something girl with curly brown hair that could've passed for blonde. Bellamy looked up at the employee, who caught eyes with him and both of them suddenly gasped. Alessia, who had been a bit distracted with her phone, looked up in concern as she heard the two of them inhale sharply in surprise.

"Oh my God. Gina?" Bellamy breathed, his mouth practically falling slack as he lifted himself up from his chair. The girl scoffed with the same incredulous tone as the two of them embraced, causing Alessia to cock an eyebrow suspiciously as she noticed the especially unplatonic nature of the hug. Gina pulled away from him and smiled as he continued, "What are you doing here?"

"I work here," she said in an obvious tone. "The real question is, what are _you_ doing here? I thought you'd moved to Virginia for basic training."

"I-I did..." he trailed off, figuring he couldn't really say much more. "Things sort of got complicated. But that's not important. When did you get a job here?"

"Two weeks ago. Took a lot of networking, but here I am." It was then Alessia chose to clear her throat, deciding that it was time to make herself known in their friendly reunion. Gina turned around as Bellamy's eyes moved to Alessia, who sat down at her place at the table with a somewhat reserved smile. Bellamy frowned and, seeing Alessia's prompting eyebrow, had no choice but to introduce her.

"Sorry. Gina, this is Alessia. Alessia, this is Gina."

"It's nice to meet you, Gina," Alessia greeted her as she stood up and shook Gina's hand respectably. Gina returned the gesture, admittedly awkward.

"A-Are you Bellamy's girlfriend, or...?"

"Hell no." Bellamy muttered as he interrupted Alessia from speaking. "She's a travel acquaintance...sort of."

"Travel acquaintance?" Alessia repeated to him with a glower, but he just gave her a sour look until she rolled her eyes and agreed. "Yep, that's right. Travel acquaintances. I didn't even know it was a thing, but you know...apps these days." Gina opened her mouth to ask a question, but Alessia waved it off and hastily continued. "And you and Bellamy? How do you two know each other?"

"Bellamy and I knew each other in high school." Gina looked at Bellamy over her shoulder with a grin. "Wow, I feel so old when I say that."

Bellamy laughed, and Alessia crossed her arms and shifted uncomfortably. She didn't think his laugh could be so genuine. "Well, it's definitely been a long time. We should catch up. When does your shift end?"

"Eleven."

"Wow, that late?"

"Yeah, they're a bit understaffed right now." Gina looked around cautiously. "Don't...let anyone know that you know that."

"Haha, I won't. Alessia and I should be back by eight at the latest, so if you want to swing by our room...or if you want me to meet you somewhere for a drink...?"

"Yeah, definitely. I think I have your number somewhere, I'll text you."

"Perfect." Alessia sat back down in her chair as Bellamy stared at Gina for a longer time, baffled. Although she tried to convince herself she didn't care, Alessia snuck a glance up at him discreetly, conflicted as she saw a look on his face that she didn't particularly entertain. "God, it's really good to see you."

She didn't like the way Gina looked back at him, either. "It's good to see you, too, Bellamy. If there's anything you need, I'll be around here...somewhere."

Bellamy nodded at her and watched nostalgically as she walked away from them after throwing a smile to Alessia, to which the resentful Alessia gave her a half-smile back. When she was out of their sight, Bellamy shook off the feeling that had resurfaced and sat back down, throwing his napkin over his lap again. He barely even noticed Alessia was staring at him while tracing her finger around the rim of her mimosa glass.

"So how many times did you sleep with her?" Alessia asked nonchalantly, though it definitely threw Bellamy for a loop. As he shoved a hash brown in his mouth, he shrugged.

"I don't know what you were talking about."

"I'm not blind. I'm pretty sure even that old guy in the corner saw you two eye-fucking two feet away from each other." Alessia smirked and leaned back in her chair as she downed the rest of her mimosa. Bellamy rolled his eyes. He was determined to eat his breakfast in peace, but that obviously wasn't happening. "Come on, Blake. I'm curious."

"Why?"

"You should know by now there's never really a 'why' with me, I'm just a naturally curious girl." He scoffed.

"Alright, fine. Only once. It was at a graduation party where we both got hammered." Bellamy studied Alessia as she kept her mouth completely shut while putting her mimosa glass on the table without saying a word. He knew it was strange, and so he put down his food and leaned back in his own chair. "You don't need to worry about her, Robin Hood."

Her eyes flickered up anxiously. "Who's worrying?"

"You are. But you shouldn't. I won't tell her about our deal, you know. I'm not that stupid."

Alessia let out the breath that she didn't realize she'd been holding in the whole time. It made her tremble slightly, but she pushed through it and tried to sound as normal as she could. "You better not, Blake. The more people that know, the worse it is for both of us. My dad has friends in high places—"

"I said I wouldn't tell her."

"Good."

"Great."

The two of them sat in silence for a few moments before Alessia suddenly lifted herself out of the chair and slipped her phone into her pocket with a sigh. "I should go get dressed. I'll meet you downstairs in the lobby?"

He nodded at her, but even though she'd asked a question, Alessia left without hearing an answer. Bellamy stared after her, confused, but decided not to push her buttons. Alessia Kane was a girl he did not, and would not, dare to try and figure out.

* * *

Jasper was about ready to head for the door the second he saw Raven turn from him, mid-conversation with a girl from the row beside them. He began to panic, the anxiety taking over him entirely. His fingers began to shake, his hands began to tremble, and he started to sweat. Sweat. Not a little drizzle, but _sweat._ With uneven movements, he rushed over to his assigned seat, which happened to be right next to the black-haired beauty that would surely beat him up when he didn't tell her what was going on. Damn Mr. Pike, always a pain in his ass. Why couldn't he arrange everyone in alphabetical order like normal teachers?

"Jasper! Thank God, you're here. Did you happen to read the book we were supposed to last night? The homework seemed to slip my mind..." Jasper looked up at her nervously, and Raven cocked an eyebrow. "You don't look so hot."

"I-I-I think I may be s-s-sick."

"Seriously?" He watched her nose scrunch up. "Come on, Jasper, why'd you come to school today then?"

"W-We have a t-t-t-est in second period."

Raven shrugged. "You probably could've used the extra day to study. What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing!" Jasper shouted, unusually loud. Mr. Pike looked up from his desk with an evil look on his face, causing Jasper to swallow down the saliva in his mouth quickly, leaving it bone dry. Raven turned herself more to him, making him even more uncomfortable. "N-Nothing. Nothing. Everything's totally fine."

"Words are coming out of your mouth but I don't believe them." He tried desperately to look everywhere except for directly at her, knowing that he would spill it the second he looked into her eyes. He was a terrible liar. Shit. He should've never gone into the back of the library to look for the special edition of Monty's favorite comic book! This is the thanks he gets for being a wonderful friend. "Jasper, seriously. What's wrong?"

"Raven, you...don't want to know. Please don't make me tell you."

"Well now that you said that, I definitely want to know. Jasper. Jasper!" He had no choice. It was inevitable. The force in her voice caught his eyes and kept them in hers. He could feel it coming up his chest like word vomit. "Tell. Me."

Maybe she knew. Maybe she was okay with it? Maybe it wouldn't be that bad. Maybe she would forgive him. Maybe she wouldn't forgive him but they could all still be friends. Maybe Clarke and Finn wouldn't hate him. Maybe Raven would forgive him for ruining her life. Maybe things would be okay.

He filled his thoughts with 'maybes' as he felt the words finally come out of his mouth, unable to be stopped for the life of him. _Damn comic books._

"I saw Clarke and Finn in the stacks." Raven gave him a bewildered look, but just as he opened his mouth to maybe lie or maybe explain himself, he saw her expression relax and her shoulders stiffen. She knew. God damn it, she knew. He couldn't keep one lousy secret to himself. Jasper leaned closer to her, the sweat on his forehead starting to subside, only being replaced with a look of guilt on his face. "Raven, I am so sor—"

"Don't say it." She leaned back in her chair and tapped her pencil on the desk. Jasper stared at her, but he didn't know what to do. He clenched his fist so hard he could feel his short nails dig into his skin. Raven just stared up at the clock as it ticked until finally the bell rang, just as Jasper opened his mouth to say something else. Before he could, Mr. Pike lifted himself from his desk with a stack of papers in his hand.

"Good news, people! Pop quiz on _The Scarlett Letter_!" There was a resounding groan in the crowd, but not from Raven or Jasper. Jasper sighed heavily. Not only did he just tell Raven that his boyfriend was cheating on her, but she was sure to fail the quiz. Come to think of it, so was he...as he was so shocked from the night before he'd forgotten entirely about the other three chapters they were supposed to read by the morning class. Mr. Pike didn't waste a second before passing the quizzes out with no remorse. "Clear your desks. Good luck. If you read the chapters last night...well, you won't really need it, then."

* * *

They spent most of their morning into the early afternoon first in Chinatown and then in Little Italy, consuming all the food they could. By the time they had walked to Central Park, nearly an hour's walk that Alessia and Bellamy only endured because they were so stuffed from their cultural excursion, they'd burned off all the calories they'd consumed in the previous hours. In addition to the exercise, the two of them had a chance to do something they hadn't really had the option to do before in the midst of all the rush of getting to the city: talk. The hour they spent walking to Central Park in the middle of the crowded New York streets was the only hour since they'd met that they hadn't screamed at each other for doing something stupid. Not before long, they finally reached their destination in the middle of ridiculous laughter that tourists around them noticed with strange stares.

"So he's naked and my dad is, like, two seconds from walking in the door and we don't know what the fuck to do," Alessia finished as Bellamy laughed. "So I shove him out the window and, while I'm talking to my dad, our neighbors are wondering why the hell there's a naked guy hanging off our roof. I had to take care of all the children on the street for a month just to keep it from Kane. He found out anyways."

"I know girls like you, Robin Hood. You're nothing but trouble, aren't you?" Bellamy swept his eyes to the side to watch the teenager next to him shrug calmly. "I bet every guy that's been with you doesn't live to tell the story."

They stopped in the middle of the park as she turned to him in the sunlight and sighed. "That's hardly my fault."

"I never said it was your fault. I just said you were trouble."

He couldn't see her through her sunglasses, but he was sure that she rolled her eyes at that point. Alessia looked down at her watch and nodded appreciatively. "It's only one o'clock. I have about four hours before I have to head out to this restaurant to meet Cage."

"Your boring date from the art gallery? That'll go over well."

"Hey, I said the gallery was boring, I never said _he_ was." She watched as Bellamy laid out an old sheet they'd gotten for cents on the dollar back at Chinatown from a little old lady on the corner of the street. Both of them sat down on the blanketed grass as Alessia scoffed. "Besides, you have a date yourself, in case you forgot."

Bellamy smiled, looking ultra suave in the Ray Bans she'd practically forced him to purchase the day before when they'd gone shopping. "I don't date, Kane. Dating would require a lot more out of me than I end up giving."

"I've dated guys who've said the exact same thing. Emphasis on the dating part." She laid back on the grass, and he looked down at her as her chest rose and fell with a soft breath. "Don't get me wrong, Blake. Sex is probably my favorite thing to do and all, but even when there's just sex, there's always something more. Don't fool yourself by thinking otherwise."

He wrapped his hands around his knees and scoffed. "Now look who's pretending to know who."

"I'm not pretending. You said you know girls like me, and well...I know guys like you. Guys who are afraid to admit that they can care about someone or something other than their dicks. But trust me, it's happened."

"How do you know they weren't pretending to care about you just so that you would pay some extra special attention to their dicks?"

Alessia's eyes opened from behind her sunglasses to look at Bellamy, who was staring back at her with a trivial smile. She slowly propped herself up on her elbows and looked at him over her glasses with a serious tone in her eyes.

"I'm the heartbreaker, Blake. Not the other way around."

"You're telling me you've never been heartbroken before?"

"Even if I had been, I would bounce back fast." She paused precariously. "Have you had your heart broken, Blake?"

"In order for me to have my heart broken, that would mean I would've had to give it to someone to break it in the first place." Alessia watched as he let out an exhale and laid down on the blanket next to her, and so she released herself from her elbows and situated herself on the ground. They both stared up at the midday sun, drowning out the sounds of the city life in the distance. The air was quiet around them for a few moments before Bellamy lifted his arm and put his hand behind his head as a makeshift pillow while smiling. "So how'd you break PFC Mercer's heart? I bet you broke up with him because you were _extremely_ attracted to his roommate."

"Oh, you wish!" She laughed, nudging Bellamy in the side. He laughed, too, and turned his head to watch her as she simmered down, eventually realizing that he wanted a real answer to the question. Her smile dropped, and he could see the hurt that came across her features that he had seen the night she had come to his door looking for Calix. He wanted to ask her about that, but she spoke too quickly. "PFC Mercer was discharged before we left."

Bellamy was about to ask why, but he realized that he didn't need to. He scoffed. "Like I said. Trouble."

"You love it." He turned his head to her as she did to him, and they both stared at each other from across the blanket, their heads so close they could feel the air between them. Bellamy could faintly see her eyes through her sunglasses, but he could see the cocky smile on her lips clear as day. He couldn't help himself as a smirk fell upon his.

"Maybe I do," he agreed.

Alessia watched him cautiously, her entire body practically throbbing at the sight of him, the small smirk on his lips, the disheveled hair, the mischievous look he gave her through his sunglasses. It stayed like that for a long time until she finally broke the eye contact, laughing to herself as she looked up at the cloudless sky.

"You know, you're a lot of trouble yourself, Blake." He copied her movements and focused on the clouds as she muttered the words breathlessly.

They stopped talking for a while to enjoy the spring air, but somehow, Alessia found herself napping quietly in the middle of the park with the sun beating down on her, soaking into her skin. Bellamy wasn't far behind, as he drifted off a bit after she had. They would've never woken up, either, if it weren't for the incessant buzzing in Alessia's pocket. It slowly brought her back to a conscious state, but did not bring Bellamy out of his slumber.

Alessia woke softly, her eyes adjusting to the natural light as the sun began to set behind the skyscrapers in their view. It took her a moment, but when she realized that the sky was orange, her phone was buzzing in her pocket, and that she'd spent God knows how long sleeping on Bellamy Blake's chest, she shot up with a jolt that had Bellamy awake and alert in no time.

"Damn it!" Alessia cursed to herself as she read the missed call from Cage on her burner phone. Bellamy sat up, inches away from her, and took off his sunglasses to rub the sleep out of his eyes.

"Calm down, Kane. Your date's probably being impatient."

"It's five fifteen, Bellamy." She lifted herself from the blanket quickly, ignoring her small stumble as she made her way up. He got up from the blanket as well and watched as she tried to hurry out on him.

"Come on, relax. You'll get there when you get there. Don't you have to go back to the hotel and change?"

"There's no time, Bellamy, it's rush hour. I've got to get to the restaurant but..." She turned around at him with her sunglasses on top of her head, showing her crazed after-sleep eyes that began to calm down with a look to him. He had removed his own sunglasses, and she stared him for a moment too long as she took in the sight of his disoriented self. "I'll see you back at the room, I guess. If there's a sock on the door, I'll wait in the lobby."

"Alessia—"

"I've got to go. Bye!" she shouted as she rushed away from him, over to the side of the park where she hailed a cab quickly and hopped in. He watched as the cab attempted to take off in the middle of traffic, and when he lost sight of the taxi, he ran a hand through his hair and sighed heavily. He turned around to the sheet on the grass and bent down so that he could gather it up, brush it off, and fold it before he made his way back to the hotel.

* * *

Kane had never wanted to beat the crap out of anyone as much as he wanted to beat the crap out of everyone at that moment. Anything that anyone said to him made him want to yell, scream, kick, punch, or stab; it wasn't good for his health. After his earlier visit to Jaha, who had refused to revoke Octavia's temporary enrollment in the Ark Academy due to "protocol" reasons (which was bullshit, and Kane knew it), he was about ready to kill the first person he saw with his own bare hands. On top of his daughter disappearing on him in the middle of the night, his superior wouldn't help him because he knew it would bring out the base's indiscretions, which he couldn't have. And on top of _that,_ he couldn't lure her or her aid back to Fort Arkadia because there was a damn good social worker who refused to let him speak to Octavia Blake without him present. Not that she said anything even if he were present.

All of this stress led LTC Kane to the private gym, one that wasn't used by anyone but the higher-ups at the base. It was so late at night that he was sure no one would come in while he had the stereo blasting old '80s rock music, aiding the punches and kicks he threw at the punching bag in front of him. He had opted out of the boxing gloves and had instead gone with the half cut ones instead, which had been a clear and obvious mistake. He could feel his fingers begin to bleed, but he didn't care. He continued to punch the bag over and over again, imagining it was the punk that took his daughter. He had no right.

He didn't know how long he'd been in the gym, but at some point, he heard the door behind him open with a mechanical _click_. Kane didn't even bother to turn around, mostly because he didn't feel like talking to anyone.

"Marcus." It was an unexpected voice, one that made Kane stop for nearly half a second to realize who it was that was in the room with him. Nevertheless, he continued to throw his fists at the bag. When Abby realized that he wasn't going to turn around and talk to her, she walked around Marcus and his punching bag to come out on the other side so she could at least see his face. "You've been in here for nearly two hours. And you're not wearing the protective gloves."

"You don't get to wear protective gloves in the battlefield, Abby."

"Yes, but we're not in the battlefield, we're in the gym." He paused to let his eyes flicker up at her in disapproval before he continued once more. Abby crossed her arms over her chest. "I can see that your knuckles are bleeding, you should really bandage them and take a break."

"I don't need your help. You can go."

"I don't want to go."

"Well, then stay!" He threw his hands up exasperatedly. "I don't really care what you do with your time. Just let me have some peace and quiet."

She obliged, letting him have a few moments of quiet while she stepped back to sit on one of the benches across from the punching bag. Kane grunted as he hit the bag over and over again, one punch after another and another and another. He didn't know whether it felt good to get the frustration out or whether it felt good to have his hands beaten over and over again by the solid brick in front of him that refused to fight back. Abby watched him patiently as Kane hit the bag over and over, eventually losing himself in it. When it got to the point where she could see the brokenness inside of him, she stood from the bench and walked forward cautiously. He barely flinched.

"Marcus. Marcus, stop. Marcus!" At that point, Abby had gotten so close that she dodged one of his punches and grabbed his wrists to still them. Kane breathed heavily into her face, and she tried not to let the hot air bother her. He stood there for a moment, his eyes locked with hers wildly, but then he pulled his wrists away and walked over to his water bottle. She dropped her hands, collected her thoughts, and let out a long sigh.

"You can't keep doing this to yourself. You know why she left. She left because you tacked on another three weeks and prevented her from the big spring break trip all the kids were planning. You should have known she would leave the second you did that."

"I had the guards on watch for _her_." He took a long swig of his water, which was warm and gross at that point. "I didn't have them on watch for that new Private. I should have, though. Alessia always had a knack for charming impressionable boys into doing her dirty work."

"That's no way to talk about your own daughter."

"Nevertheless, it's true." Kane looked over at her as he wiped his forehead, which was drenched in sweat. "When I see that kid, I'm going to kill him."

"No, you won't. You're not going to punish Alessia, either. You're going to stop treating her like a two-year-old and let her have a life of her own. She's eighteen, Marcus."

He laughed. "Oh, really? You're going to give me a lesson on parenting, Abby? Look, I've appreciated you helping her out with her...girl problems ever since her mother died, but you're not her mother. I'm in charge of her and I'll be the one who decides what I do when she comes back!"

"If you keep this up, she'll never come back. We both know that's not what you want. You want your daughter back, that's all. So why don't you—"

"I don't recall asking for your advice." He stared up at her coldly. Abby stared back at him with a bit of annoyance in her eyes, but all he did was brush past her and walk back to the punching bag with a sharp exhale. "I think you should leave now."

"Marcus—"

"Dr. Griffin, I said leave before I have to escort you out myself." He kept his back turned to her, but froze. Abigail watched him as his chest rose and fell evenly, and through the mirror on the back side of the room, she could see his stern face. Realizing that she wasn't getting through to him, she decided not to press further. Marcus Kane was not a man that you could get through to when he was angry. So, even though she didn't want to, she turned away from him and walked out of the room calmly, leaving him to wallow in his hatred as he always did. When she was gone, Marcus put a hand on his hip as he rubbed his eyes, trying to rid himself of the emotions he could feel bubbling up inside of him. He wanted his daughter back, that's all he wanted. He never meant for it to happen this way.

Because the truth was, as much as he and everyone else wanted to believe that she ran away because he was a terrible father, he just didn't know. Or, rather, he hoped that it wasn't true. He hoped he wasn't the type of father that would make his daughter do something so drastic.

He lifted his head and sucked in a deep breath. Two seconds later, he was beating the shit out of the punching bag like nothing had happened.

* * *

Luckily, the restaurant Cage wanted to meet her at wasn't too far from Central Park; but it was still a good thirty minutes, which put her at 5:45 for their 5:00 date. She'd called Cage and left him a voicemail, and could only hope that he was still there. She didn't have a lot of faith that he was, but when she showed up at the restaurant, she paid the taxi driver quickly and rushed inside, where she was finally able to catch her breath. The hostess stared at her with eons of judgement, and for a moment, Alessia didn't realize why until she saw other guests walking into the dining room in somewhat formal attire. Alessia swallowed thickly as she stared down at her black crop top, red shorts, and gladiator sandals while it dawned on her that she was not up to the dress code. Still, she walked over to the hostess.

"I'm supposed to be meeting someone here. Cage Wallace," she breathed. The hostess, though reluctant through her bitchiness, looked through her iPad for the reservation and nodded.

"Right this way."

With a once-over at her outfit again, the hostess begrudgingly led Alessia to her table in the back, where Cage was sitting in a corner booth talking on the phone quietly with someone that sounded like a business partner. The hostess gave Alessia a menu and departed with her judgement close behind her, and as Cage saw Alessia and her less than appropriate attire, he wrapped things up with the person on the other side of the phone as quickly as he could while Alessia cautiously sat down. When he ended the call, he raised an eyebrow.

"Should I have reminded you to wear something nice?"

His question annoyed her, but she ignored it. "I was in Central Park and I lost track of time and so I had to rush to get over here."

He laughed softly, and she was glad he wasn't going to be a dick about it. "There's a store a few blocks down. We could walk there and get something for you to wear and come back. I could have them reserve another table."

Alessia bit down on her lip as she looked around at the people in the restaurant, the kinds of people with sticks up their asses that went to fancy dinners every night. To be extremely honest, she didn't want to be at some stick in the mud fancy restaurant on the one week of her life that she was trying to live free. Being in a close environment like the one she was in then made her feel suffocated, like she was back at Fort Arkadia with a bunch of people she hated.

"Actually..." she trailed off, trying to put it in the nicest way possible. Cage waited for her, noticing her struggle for words. "Look, Cage, I appreciate you bringing me out here...this all looks really nice and everything, but even though I may look like it, I'm not this kind of girl. I don't really want to eat dinner at some luxury restaurant with..." Alessia looked down at the menu, her eyes widening. "Taglioni with butter and white truffles? Okay...that sounds _amazing_ , but...I just don't think this is a good idea."

Cage opened his mouth to speak, but she didn't listen. Instead, she lifted herself from the booth and smiled. "Thanks for inviting me tonight. I'll see you around...maybe."

"Alessia," he caught her as she tried to leave the vicinity of the booth. She turned around carefully as he put down the napkin on his lap and stood up with a scoff. "I don't care where we eat. There's a bar and grill around the corner, no dress code, no taglioni with butter and white truffles."

She thought about it for a moment, debating with herself whether it was that she didn't want to eat at a fancy restaurant or she didn't want to eat at all with Cage Wallace. She thought about Bellamy sitting in the hotel, and she considered seriously just going back to be with him for the rest of the night. But she remembered then that Gina would be getting off work in two hours, and what would she do then? Sit at the Starbucks in the lobby while the two of them had sex up in the room she was paying for? She had more self-respect than that.

"A bar and grill sounds nice," she admitted, letting out a sigh of relief. Cage nodded and walked over to her, gesturing for her to lead the way. Alessia pursed her lips in thought as she looked him over in the sleek grey suit that looked like it'd just been dry-cleaned recently. "You know, I think you may be a bit overdressed though."

Alessia heard him chuckle under his breath as the two of them left the restaurant to go to another one. For a while, at least, Alessia vowed to put Bellamy in the furthest corner of her mind so she could enjoy her night.

* * *

It wasn't the first time in her life that she felt alone. She'd been alone lots of times, when Bellamy was working two jobs just to meet their ends after their mother died and the insurance company refused to pay anything because their mother had missed out on her last payment at the time she'd kicked the bucket. So she was used to having to make things like mac-and-cheese for dinner, not that it made her hate it any less. As she lifted herself from the small couch in her small apartment/dorm room to make herself the crappy cheese pasta, she heard a knock on the door. Maybe it was Clarke or Finn or Raven or Jasper or Monty coming to keep her company? Fat chance. They were all too wrapped up in their own drama to even fathom that she was hurting because her brother had up and abandoned her for some spoiled rich girl who wanted to go to New York City for a _vacation._

Yeah, Lincoln had told her everything—as promised—when they had returned back to her apartment the day that Kane had cornered her. And speaking of...

"Lincoln," Octavia breathed, confused. He was dressed in casual clothing, not the suits that he usually wore when they saw each other, mostly because Kane had requested to talk to her. He smiled wide at the teenager in front of him and slowly brought up a brown paper bag.

"Chinese from Lexington. I'm sure it's not as good as New York's, but I figured you could use the comfort food."

"Um...thank you." Octavia smiled back at him. No one had never done something that nice for her before. She was stuck for a moment as she took the brown paper bag, her fingers just slightly brushing over his. Her pink lips pursed as she let her eyes wonder in thought before stepping to the side, just slightly. "Do you want to...join me? You can if you want."

Lincoln hung his head with a small chuckle. "Of course I want. Who could resist the cheap Chinese food?"

She laughed, too, and he walked into the small dorm just as she closed the door.

* * *

Six tequila shots, two Manhattans, and a margarita later, Alessia found herself being ushered into a cab by Cage, who wasn't nearly as drunk as she was. All he'd had during their dinner was a beer, and he didn't even ask for a second one. She just kept downing them over and over and over again, and he watched, amused at her erratic behavior. She told him where to take her, and he instructed the taxi to take her to the hotel first before dropping him off. She was practically flopping around in the taxi, laughing uncontrollably at something that she hadn't even said aloud. The taxi driver looked at her like she was insane, and Cage only found it more amusing.

"You're wasted," Cage murmured to her as the cab drove the streets of New York. Alessia smiled loosely and ignored his comment with a random fact about herself.

"Do you know that I do—did yoga every morning for three years? I can bend in ways that people shouldn't be able to bend." Her eyes stared at him pointedly, implying a double meaning. Cage was quiet, mostly because he was intrigued at what she was insinuating. Suddenly, Alessia began to laugh again. "Men! It's like taking candy from a small...horny little baby. All you think about is sex!"

"I wouldn't have sex with you while you're this drunk, Alessia," Cage chuckled. "Although the thought of it is tempting."

"Well, that sounds very rapey." Yet, she laughed. Cage watched her as she practically threw her legs up in the air from whatever she thought was so funny. "Oh, God. I'm so fucking fucked when I get back to the hotel. Bellamy's gonna get all 'you're so much trouble, Alessia, you're gonna get me in trouble, you're gonna get the hotel in trouble, you're gonna get the President in trouble'...wait, why would the President get in trouble because I'm drunk? Hell if I know! Because, apparently, I'm trouble enough for everyone! Here, have some trouble, Cage!"

"Bellamy? Your travel acquaintance?"

"Travel acquaintance! Can you believe he said that to her? Who the fuck has a 'travel acquaintance'?! That's not a thing!"

"He said what to who?"

"Oh, forget it." She played with the end of her misshapen braid that sat on her shoulder. "Some chick he slept with once, I don't even know. She seemed nice enough, but I kinda hate her guts."

Cage raised an eyebrow. "Because he slept with her?"

"No! Because she was all 'It's so nice to see you Bellamy' blah, blah, blah, blah...blah." Alessia lifted herself upright and turned to Cage with wide, crazed eyes. "Have sex with me. Seriously. We could go up to my room right now. I'm...like...ninety-nine percent sure I want this."

"I'm _ninety-nine_ percent sure that you're gonna pass out in twenty minutes, so I'm gonna say no." Cage reached out and brushed a piece of fallen hair out of her face. "Plus, you're a hot mess right now. I don't have sex with hot messes."

"Well, fuck. We're never having sex then, I guess."

"Oh, look. We're here." He let out somewhat of a relieved breath as the cab driver pulled up to the curb in front of the Hilton. He opened the door and stepped out of the cab, reaching back inside to help Alessia and her drunken self out as well. She wobbled around, lacking her usual grace as she stepped out onto the sidewalk and stepped so close to Cage that he could smell the 1800 Coconut Tequila on her breath. "Shit, Alessia, do you need me to bring you upstairs, too?"

Without warning or any context whatsoever, she lunged herself forward and latched her lips onto Cage's, a kiss so sudden and off-balance that it was something she actually began to regret as the seconds passed by. Cage took what he could get, partly taking advantage of her drunkenness and her inability to want to force herself away. He kissed for a lot longer than he should have before she finally pulled away, slightly confused, and murmured, "Are you sure we're not going to have sex? Because I'm getting that vibe."

"Alright, then, I'm definitely not taking you upstairs now." He grinned, and she closed her eyes for a moment and rocked with her own smile. "If I come up, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna end up doing something you're gonna regret in the morning."

"Aw, that's no fun."

"No, it's not. Goodnight, Miss Kane."

"Ooh, 'Miss Kane'..." Alessia smirked to herself as she backed away from Cage to the front door of the Hilton while he moved back into the taxicab. "'Miss Kane'...I've never been called that before."

"Excuse me, Miss Kane?"

Alessia spun around as she walked into the hotel with wide eyes and a girlish giggle. "Fuck, it happened again! 'Miss Kane' 'Miss Kane'! I love it!"

A tall, buff, dark-skinned hotel guard came up to her with a concerned look on his face. "Have you been drinking tonight?"

She raised her hands with a tiny pinch. "Just a bit."

"Let me escort you upstairs."

"No, no, it's okay, I can take care of myself." She reached into her small purse and grabbed a receipt, thinking that it was a twenty. "Here you go, don't spend it all in one place."

"Miss Kane—" the guard tried to stop her, but she was already in the elevator and the doors were already closed. She sighed heavily as she stood still in the small box, and she found that the movement of the elevator was too much. She braced herself up against the doors, but that's when the doors to the elevator opened again. Thinking it was her floor, she stepped out, but as she did, she ran into the same guard. A confused look overcame her features.

"What? You were in the lobby. Do you have a twin?"

"Miss Kane—"

"Oh! I'm such a doofus, hold on." The guard looked at her with confusion as she stepped back into the elevator and pressed the button. By the time he realized that she had hit the button to her floor and tried to get in to escort her upstairs, she gave him a small wave goodbye and felt herself ascending into the air to take her to her floor. Her head was no longer spinning, but she felt a burning desire to get rid of her shoes. Though they were sandals and weren't hurting her feet at all, she found comfort in the way that her toes touched the cold elevator tiles, and later the rug installed on the hallway floors. Thankfully, she found her way to her room with only a little bit of stumbling, and after a while, she was able to get out her hotel key card and open the door. It was a victory for her, at least. Alessia threw her hands in the air with a victorious shout and stumbled into the bedroom, where she saw Bellamy lying down on the bed with only his jeans from earlier. His hand was behind his head as he watched TV, and Alessia stopped cold in her tracks.

 _God, he's so fucking hot,_ she thought to herself, and she had to admit that she wasn't exactly sure that it was the alcohol talking. She could see the cut of his muscles, everywhere from his biceps to the outline of his ab muscles. Bellamy looked over at her casually, completely oblivious to her stumble.

"How was your date?"

Alessia tried to think of words, but the only one that came out of her mouth was a breathless: "...Hot."

He snickered. "Well, it couldn't have been _that_ hot if you're back this early."

"No...not the date. You're just so...so...hot." Bellamy was half paying attention to her and half paying attention to the show on the television. But when he heard the strange words from her mouth, he tore his eyes reluctantly and stared over at her with a small snort.

"Wait, what did you just say?"

"You heard what I said." She walked forward and touched a button on the TV to turn it off, and Bellamy looked at her with uncertainty. He saw something in her eyes that he wasn't really sure how to describe. She stood before him, her eyes trailing painfully across his body. Bellamy shifted, sitting upright tensely.

"Alessia, are you drunk?"

"Does it matter?" She put her things on the desk behind her and reached up to yank the hair tie from the bottom of her braid. He was completely thrown off as she shook out her hair and looked back at him with a clear expression of lust. Bellamy swallowed thickly.

"I think it does matter, yeah. You're acting strange."

"Strange? I don't think it's 'strange' at all. Tell me you don't want this." Alessia tossed her shoes to the side and climbed onto the bed at the foot of it, and although Bellamy was beyond confused and partially surprised at her actions, he didn't move an inch. He merely watched as she came forward closer and closer and closer. He wanted to say something—anything would've worked, really—but he couldn't bring it inside of him to speak. It was as if his words were caught in his throat and he couldn't stop her from getting so close to him that he could smell the intoxication on her lips. Her hands were so warm against his skin that it became a simple fact that he didn't want her to stop. He sat, bewildered and dazed as her fingertips brushed across his chest as she came to straddle his waist. Bellamy sighed into her personal space, uncomfortably warm. He should say something.

"Kane, what are you doing?"

Though her face was so close to his, he could see her smile. "I think you know what I'm doing, Blake."

 _I should stop this,_ he thought to himself desperately as she put her heated hands on his face and sunk down into his lap, her lips so close to his he could just taste her. It was like time slowed for a few moments as he battled within himself, knowing that he shouldn't take advantage of her when she was so obviously drunk but wanting it so bad that the good inside of him was being eclipsed by his basic human nature. Maybe he would've had enough strength if she had the stench of alcohol drenching her skin, but even though he could smell the tequila on her breath, there was something else. Strawberries, maybe from her hair. It was like it wrapped around him and clouded his thinking abilities. She was so close to kissing him, all he had to do was move a fraction of an inch forward and they would be there. His hands rested on her thighs, and he clenched them so badly that if they were actually to kiss, he was sure he wouldn't be able to stop himself from everything else.

Thankfully, a sharp knock on the door snapped Bellamy out of the haze. The strawberries he smelled in her hair slowly dissipated as he heard a voice through the door. Gina.

"Bellamy?" Gina asked through the door as she knocked again. "You in there?"

"Don't," Alessia warned him. Bellamy moved his hands up to push her hips back so that he could lift himself straight up without kissing her.

"This isn't a good idea, Alessia. Let me send her away and then we'll talk about this."

"I don't want to _talk_ ," she complained, but had no other choice when he pushed her off of him and lifted himself from the bed. She flopped down on her back with a frustrated sigh. Her hair landed in her face and she drunkenly blew it away with a wrinkle in her nose, disappointed. There was another knock, and Bellamy hurriedly slipped a shirt over his head as he swung open the door with a smile.

"Hey," he greeted her. Gina smiled back at him happily.

"Hey! I know we said we'd meet in the lobby, but I was on the floor and figured we could walk down together."

"You know, right now isn't really the best time." Bellamy cleared his throat to try and get the confusion and desire out of his system. He could still feel his stomach turning in knots at the thought of Alessia Kane on the bed behind him, desperate to kiss him. "Can we take a rain check?"

"Um, sure..."

"Thanks! I'll text you." Gina opened her mouth to say goodbye, but before she got the chance, Bellamy shut the door and turned back into the room with a heavy exhale. He stormed over to the bed furiously, starting to say her name, but he stopped himself as he saw her breathing evenly, completely passed out. Bellamy frowned at her, but the more he stood with a grimace and watched her sleep, the more that grimace went away. He watched her breathe so slowly, so innocently. One hand was on her stomach, the other next to her head. Her disheveled hair was tossed around her head, but she didn't seem to mind. She was dead to the world, practically.

"Goddamn it," Bellamy murmured to himself as he reached forward and slid one hand underneath her back and one hand underneath her knees to lift her up into his arms. He held her close to his chest as he walked over to her bed on the other side of the nightstand and set her down, pulling the covers down and over her body. She turned onto her side, facing him. He watched her again, finding it oddly peaceful. For a while he stayed there, unconscious that his hand was in her hair, stroking the silk-like strands. At last, when he realized what he was doing, he froze and straightened, leaving her to sleep in her bed undisturbed. He turned back to his bed and stood there for a moment, trying to make sense of what had just happened.

Then, he noticed that he needed a cold shower. Badly.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading! Please review!**

* * *

 **narelclollie** : Thank you! We'll be seeing more of Cage in later chapters and that'll be a little bit further into Bellamy and Alessia's relationship at that point so it will be interesting. Thanks for reviewing!


	7. Chapter 6

**Hiatus suspended for now(ish). Here's another chapter! I probably won't update for a while because I have to edit the next one, but I hope you like this chapter!**

 **Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter. Also, be forewarned, this chapter is a little bit risqué concerning Bellamy and Alessia but nothing too bad.**

* * *

 **Chapter 6**

 _"Life isn't always what one likes, is it?"_

 _"No, it isn't."_

* * *

She could almost taste it. It was like she was inches from Heaven. There was something growing inside of her, a burning desire to taste it, to touch it, to want it. She didn't think she could want anything more than she wanted anything in her life. It was so close to her lips that she could practically feel it breathing on her, the hot steam mixing into her face that she could double over in ecstasy. She'd never felt this way before about anything or anyone. Ever. All she wanted was that one taste, that was it. Then she'd stop. Would it really be that simple? Could she just...walk away after everything that they had been through? God, she didn't know. All she knew was that she wanted it so bad, everything inside of her burned with lust.

"You look like you want to marry that thing or something."

Alessia's eyes snapped up just as she opened her mouth so wide, it was _maybe_ enough to fit the smoking hot dog in her hand. Bellamy stared down at her with concern as she backed her head away from the delicious hot dog covered in genuine sauerkraut, onions, mustard, and everything humanly possible. He chuckled to himself as he bit into his own, moaning at the delicious taste of the New York style dish.

"God damn it." He groaned. "I haven't had a hot dog like this in nearly two weeks. This is definitely worth it."

"It's that good?" she inquired, as she hadn't had her taste yet.

"Of course it's good. You can smell it, can't you?" Bellamy nodded to the hot dog in her hand. "Go on, Robin Hood. If you thought New York pizza was the best, this will rock your world. One bite and you'll never want to leave, I promise."

"I already don't want to leave." She grimaced at him as they walked towards the Wrangler parked on the corner. He divulged into his hot dog as she lowered hers reluctantly to chastise him. "Why is it that we have to go to the Hamptons today? Can't we go tomorrow?"

"Best time to go to the Hamptons is the middle of the week," he said, mid-bite. "Otherwise it's too busy. Besides, I need some beach time after last night. Drunk Alessia gives me one hell of a headache."

Her lips twitched into an unamused frown as they walked up to the side of the Wrangler, parked next to a planted tree in the middle of the sidewalk. He leaned up against his car as he began the last few bites of his Heaven. As he did, she looked at him with confusion. She knew there was something off, something that he wasn't telling her. She didn't remember much about the night before, but she vaguely remembered the taste of coconut tequila on her tongue. Coconut tequila made her do wild things; that much, she knew.

"Yeah, about that. Are you sure all I did was pass out? Because I tend to throw myself at any hot guy within a fifty feet radius when I get drunk," she muttered, hoping Bellamy wouldn't hear the last part. Unfortunately, he did. That was proved by this shit-ass grin that was painted across his lips.

"Ah, the truth comes out. You do think I'm hot, then."

"Shut up. When I'm drunk I'll have sex with anyone..." Her lips turned up into a vicious smirk. "Maybe even you, if you're lucky."

He snorted and lifted himself from the Wrangler, stepping uncomfortably close to her. She was unable to stop herself from being trapped underneath the arm he put around the top of his car, keeping her within his reach. "You didn't throw yourself at me. If you did, I would've mocked you about it already."

"Yeah? And what if you wanted it? You wouldn't tell me then, to save yourself from your own embarrassment."

Bellamy hesitated for a moment, and she found herself instantly regretting what she'd said. Of course, he knew the truth. He stared into her eyes and stood not even two inches away from her, his face so close to hers that he could smell the tiny bit of the alcohol that lingered on her skin even though she took a 30 minute shower earlier in the morning. He could also smell the strawberries again, but this time he refused to let it consume him. He was being an idiot. Getting involved with Alessia Kane would cost him everything.

But he could see her squirm, something he very much enjoyed. She tried to be tough all the time, but he knew the second he got closer to her that she would be uncomfortable. She claimed to be so repulsed by him, claimed to be so resistant to him, but she wasn't. He knew that, she knew that; yet she still tried to convince him that she didn't want it. Slowly, he raised the hand at his side and fit the small piece of hot dog he had left in his hand and smiled as he chomped it down and swallowed nonchalantly.

"Enjoy your little bite of Heaven, Robin Hood. It's the only taste you're getting on this trip. After all, we don't have enough time to grab another hot dog when we come back. You have that gallery thing and I have to reschedule my date with Gina. The only thing your drunk ass did was ruin my plans."

She watched him, agitated, as he released his hand from the top of his vehicle and left the passenger side so he could walk around the car to the driver's seat. When he was gone, she lifted herself from the car door and stood on the sidewalk, extremely uncomfortable. There was something familiar about being so close to him, like she had already smelled the overwhelming scent of mint in his breath before. She watched Bellamy slip on his glasses and climb into the car, and so Alessia shook off the feeling and turned to her hot dog. She bit into it, as Bellamy suggested, and found that he was completely and totally right. It was Heaven.

When she finished, she climbed into the car and slipped on her own sunglasses. After putting on her seatbelt, Bellamy checked his mirrors and pulled out into the street so they could get a jump start on the traffic going out to the Hamptons.

* * *

Mr. Pike turned away from the classroom full of children as soon as he finished explaining their project requirements. The class shifted, breaking off into two-person groups in order to begin working on the research that they needed to get done by the end of the week. Clarke sat in her chair looking at the black and white piece of paper, feeling very out of it. Thoughts plagued her brain, primarily over the fact that Jasper had been avoiding her for the past forty-eight hours for the same reason her stomach turned her inside out. What had she done? She swore to herself that she would never let it happen again, but there was something about Finn that made her forget her responsibilities. If she knew what was best for her, she would distance herself entirely; then again, maybe she didn't know what was best for her, after all.

With a twinge of a frown, Clarke's eyes drifted up and scanned the room. She realized suddenly that during her moment of thoughtlessness, the entire class had paired off. Great. Now she would have to do the assignment on her own because everyone knew that Mr. Pike wouldn't allow three people to a group. Just as Clarke sighed in defeat, she heard a voice beside her.

"Clarke, right?" Clarke's head turned slowly to face a tall, slender, chestnut-haired girl that stood over her with a soft, yet commanding smile. Before Clarke could say anything, the girl took a seat in the chair in front of her and widened her smile while putting her hand out in front of Clarke for a greeting. "I'm Lexa. I thought I'd save you from the horrors of a solo project. Is that okay?"

Clarke took her hand cautiously. She had never met someone so straightforward in her entire life. Yet, despite the bitchiness that was apparent around Lexa's presence, Clarke felt a warm touch in her hand. "Sure. Of course. Thanks, actually."

"No problem. You usually pair up with your friend Alessia, right? The LTC's daughter?"

Clarke's eyes dropped. Alessia. After everything that had happened, her friend seemed to slip her mind as of late. "U-Um yeah. She's not here today, I guess."

Lexa cocked an eyebrow. "Today? She hasn't been here this whole week. There are lots of stories going around, but I put my money on her running away. Who wouldn't run away from this place, you know? I feel like I'm suffocating in this classroom, even."

A small laugh escaped Clarke's lips. "Alessia used to say things like that. She really did hate it here."

"We all do."

The blonde opened her mouth to continue the conversation finding that talking to Lexa was somewhat relaxing. However, before she could, she felt her pocket buzz. She didn't want to answer it, especially since Mr. Pike was sure to take her phone if he saw it out, but she couldn't help herself. It could be Alessia.

Of course, she was wrong. It was Finn.

 **Finn Collins**

 _She knows._

Two words. That's all it took for her to lose the air in her chest. Clarke's mouth went unbelievably dry. She had a water bottle in her bag, but her hands were so numb she couldn't feel her fingers and reach down. Lexa must've seen her face grow inevitably pale, because she grew very concerned.

"Clarke? Clarke...is everything okay?"

She knows. She knows. She knows. She knows. She knows. She knows. It was on repeat in her head. But in the little consciousness she had left, she saw Mr. Pike staring at her and realized immediately that she couldn't be freaking out then. She had responsibilities, damn it. Finn couldn't make her forget anymore.

Regaining some feeling in her fingers, Clarke clenched and unclenched her fingertips as she coughed and sat straight up in her desk. Her eyes lifted to meet that of her partner's, who stared in confusion. Clarke nodded.

"Yep. Fine. Everything's fine."

* * *

The car ride to the Hamptons was admittedly ten times more enjoyable for the both of them compared to the ride to New York. It was ninety degrees, the sun was shining without a cloud in the blue sky, and Alessia and Bellamy had the Wrangler open as they rode down to Montauk. Because they left a little past rush hour, they didn't get as much traffic as Bellamy expected to.

Regardless, even when they were sitting in the Wrangler in thirty or forty minutes of stop-and-go, they still kept the music blaring and they sang at the top of their lungs to 80s rock songs. It was surprising that they didn't know it before, but when they started to discuss the car ride music, they both realized that their parents used to make them listen to 80s rock bands as children. Three hours after leaving the city, Bellamy pulled into a luxury hotel as he and Alessia bellowed Scorpion's "Rock You Like a Hurricane" that they had blasting on the radio. She was pleasantly surprised as he croaked the lyrics, complimenting his off-beat tune. If she were being honest, she didn't think Bellamy really embraced the concept of "fun" before that moment.

As the song came to a close, Alessia removed her sunglasses from her eyes and let her jaw fall slack at the hotel he pulled into. "Bellamy, what is this?"

He parked in one of the first parking spaces and took off his own Ray Bans. "It's a hotel, Kane."

"I know that. But it looks like a really, really expensive hotel."

"It is."

"So why are we here?" She noticed the explicit frown on his face and realized that she was asking a stupid question. Therefore, Alessia sighed and tried to clarify her concerns. "Look, I know I have a lot of money—"

He snorted. "No, I don't know that. You and I both know that money is far from your own."

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever. It might seem like I'm in this for a shopping spree, but the thing is that I actually don't like to spend the money. I told you, I give it to people who need it. We don't need to be spending ridiculous cash on a hotel when we can just go to the Hilton or something. I think I saw a sign on the highway."

Alessia watched as he blatantly disregarded her words and stepped out of the car. He walked around to the back and grabbed their bags, all the while hearing Alessia's protests as she opened her own car door. Before she could get out, he swung the bags over his shoulders and leaned against the side of his car as he looked into her eyes with an exhausted shrug.

"It's one night, Robin Hood. It's not going to break the bank. If you don't feel comfortable with it, take it out of the one hundred and fifty grand you owe me at the end of this vacation."

"You would do that? For some...East Hampton hotel?"

"I already reserved the room. And besides, I've always wanted to stay at this hotel. There are so many hot, rich girls to choose from."

Bellamy quite enjoyed the way her mouth turned down into a grimace. He waited for her to get over it and at last, she climbed out of the car and walked over to his side, where he laughed to himself before walking behind her into the hotel. But from the moment he stepped inside, he knew that her anger wouldn't last long. The lobby was so picturesque that no one could resist it, with aquariums and marble floorings all the way to the expensive chandelier that hung from the ceiling at least a hundred feet from the floor. The two of them stopped for a moment to appreciate what was inside, but then moved along to the front desk to check in. Bellamy put their bags down and cleared his throat for the hotel employee.

"How may I help you?"

"We have a reservation. Bellamy Blake."

"Alright. Let me see." The man, whose name plaque said 'Jerry', looked down at his computer and searched through the database for the name. Eventually, he nodded. "Yes, Mr. Blake. I have you down for two queens with executive access."

"Could we make it a suite, please?" the brunette girl asked him, and Jerry looked over at her like he didn't even notice she was there before. He nodded and searched through his database again before agreeing.

"We do have a suite available. It's an extra three hundred dollars for the night."

"That's fine. Here." She handed him the debit card linked to her account, and he took it graciously so he could enter the information into the system. They waited as Jerry finally gave her back her card and also gave her two room keys and the complimentary wi-fi password. He gave them directions to their room and with that done, Bellamy and Alessia walked over to the elevators in the room behind the lobby. As they waited for their ride to the room on the 19th floor, Bellamy peered at her curiously.

"I thought you said you didn't want to spend ridiculous money..."

"Well...when in Rome, I guess. Besides," Alessia looked at him over her shoulder. "All the hot, rich girls stay in the suites. I figured I would help you out a bit. Seeing as I ruined your 'plans' and all."

He opened his mouth to say something, but he didn't know what to say. He knew that he had been joking about it and thought that she knew it too. It was hard to tell, though, whether she actually believed that it was a joke and was playing along. For a reason unknown to him, it slightly irritated Bellamy that Alessia said something like that—because he didn't want her to mean it. Even still, he didn't know what he wanted. Something about the whole situation just felt...off.

However, before he could say anything that could get him into a whole lot of trouble, the elevator dinged and opened, letting out a flock of girls in their bathing suits with one or two guys and an old couples slowly trailing behind. Bellamy couldn't help himself, he had to watch the girls as they danced away in their skimpy clothing. _Montauk girls_ , he thought to himself as he and Alessia stepped into the elevator together. Alessia watched him as he stared after the girls, and when they disappeared and Bellamy was snapped back into the real world, she couldn't help but laugh.

"What?" he asked her, but she shook her head and said nothing to him about the keen observation.

* * *

"Shit, shit, shit! I'm late, I'm late, I'm late, I'm late, I'm late..." Octavia mumbled to herself as she ran around her tiny one-bed dorm to gather herself together in order to get to class on time. She felt as if she had super speed or something cool, because she was whipping around the box-like kitchen trying to scramble up a bowl of cereal so fast she swore she felt wind from underneath her. She poured some Honey Nut Cheerios into a bowl, never minding the Cheerios that fell on the floor in the process, and raced over to the fridge to get milk. She peered inside and scanned her eyes over and over the shelves, but then she realized. No milk.

"Well, that's just fantastic!" Octavia spat as she shut the fridge angrily. She had no more time to react, however, and simply pushed the bowl aside and rushed to the door while throwing a light jacket onto her shoulders. One of her hands found the strap of her bag while the other found the knob on the door and, without slowing, she flung herself through the opening, only to crash into another body who was standing at her doorstep. Octavia bounced back, confused. "Ow."

"Ow," Lincoln agreed as he rubbed his head where he and Octavia had accidentally collided. "Didn't know you were in such a rush."

"I am. I have to get to school."

"Actually, that's why I'm here." Octavia cocked an eyebrow, and Lincoln didn't waste much time. He exhaled sadly. "Look, LTC Kane put a stop to your temporary enrollment due to your brother's absence."

Octavia's eyes widened in alarm. "Can he even do that?!"

"Yeah...for now. But he can't kick you out of your residence until Bellamy returns." Lincoln watched as a worried expression came over Octavia's face and, though he didn't know why, he didn't like it. So, in an attempt to cheer her up, he lifted his hand to reveal a brown paper bag. "On the bright side, I brought bagels! I figured I could keep you company."

Octavia took a moment to consider the jovial look on the social worker's face and, realizing that her stomach was practically shaking, knew she couldn't turn it down. She opened the door and stepped out of the way so Lincoln could come in with their food. After all, she didn't have anywhere to be.

* * *

Alessia was the first to get out of the hotel room, mainly because she had never gotten the chance to sit in the sun and do nothing for a few hours, and she would take all the time she could get. Bellamy promised he would join her by the pool in a few minutes, but those few minutes turned longer as he paced around the room trying to decide what to do. There was a phone a few feet away from him that taunted Bellamy about his sister. He wanted to call her so bad, but Alessia had made a good point earlier about him using his own personal cell phone. He refrained from using the hotel phone back in the city because he knew the LTC would be explicitly looking, but it had been a few days. Maybe it would be okay.

On the other hand, he knew what Alessia would tell him. He knew the words as if she was standing right in front of him. Don't be an idiot _,_ she would say. Her dad is insane. He would be watching Octavia's phone calls at this point, realizing that Bellamy had gone missing the same time Alessia had. You can't call her, she would warn, and then turn around and promise wearily that Octavia was safe. And he would look back at her and say, it's his sister and he needs to talk to her. And she would frown and tell him exactly what she did before but in a meaner, less convoluted way.

At last, when the pressure had become too much to handle, he walked forward and grabbed the phone to type in the number of the cell phone he knew Octavia had, but never used because it was a flip phone as old as she was. He hoped that because it was so inactive, it would be okay.

 _"Hello?"_ he heard on the other side of the phone after a few painful rings. But instead of feeling relieved, Bellamy was surprised. It wasn't Octavia's voice on the line, it was a man's.

"Who is this?"

 _"Who is this?"_

"I'm looking for Octavia." Bellamy skillfully avoided the question and sat down in the chair, confused. "Octavia Blake, is she there?"

There was some rustling on the phone before he heard the melodic sound of his sister's voice, which ultimately made him sigh in relief. _"Bellamy? Is that you? Where the hell are you?! Do you have any idea what you've_ —"

"Slow down, Octavia. Let's start with you telling me who's with you right now."

 _"Are you kidding me? Bellamy, you've been gone for four days! The LTC thinks you're with Alessia. Is that true?"_

Bellamy opened his mouth, but he knew he had to be cautious with the words that came out of them. As much as he hated to admit it, but Alessia was right most of the time. Telling Octavia would put her in serious trouble if the LTC came after her.

"It's...complicated. I can't tell you where you are or who I'm with right at this second. We'll be back soon, though, and once we are, I'll tell you everything. You just have to trust me."

 _He could hear her hesitation. "Bellamy..."_

"I'm fine. I promise. How are you?"

 _"I'm...okay, I guess."_ He listened as she paused and said something to whoever was with her, causing Bellamy's eyebrows to shoot up with concern. There was more rustling on the phone and then he heard Octavia again, whispering. _"You don't have to worry about Lincoln, Bell. He's a social worker who's been helping me fight off Kane's attempts to get me kicked out of here. He just came by to drop off some breakfast. He's been really nice to me."_

"A social worker?! What the hell, O?" He was about to start screaming when he realized something. Alessia had told him earlier that his sister would be taken care of. But the one thing she happened to leave out was that there was a _social worker._ His blood boiled so quickly that as much as he wanted to talk to his sister, he had to talk to Alessia. "Look, Octavia...whatever you do, please make sure you look out for yourself. I'll be back soon, okay?"

 _"Alright. Wait, Bellamy?"_

"Yeah?"

 _"I don't know where you are or who you're with, but..."_ She paused. _"Look, I'm sorry about being such a bitch to you before. I know you've been under a lot of pressure after Mom. And I hope that you do...whatever you need to do. But please, just...come back soon."_

Bellamy paused to let her words sink in. There was one thing he promised his mother before he died, and it was that he would take care of Octavia. It was his sister, it was his responsibility. He just hoped that his mother didn't blame him for Alessia's lies.

"I love you, O."

 _"Love you, Bell."_

With that done, he hung up the phone and lifted himself up from the chair. He didn't even bother to change into his bathing suit before storming downstairs to the pool area. He could see some of the girls eyeing him as he walked across the concrete, but he didn't bother. He had his eye on one thing and one thing only: the 18-year-old girl lounging on a chair in the direct sunlight, soaking up the UV rays. He hadn't bothered to grab his sunglasses, and he instantly regretted it when he realized it was so bright outside he could barely see. But he saw enough to storm over to Alessia's side and block her sun, causing her eyes to drift open from behind her Gucci rims.

"You left my sister with a social worker?" he demanded. Alessia didn't bother to remove her sunglasses from her face, but still had to squint in the midday light.

"You called her, didn't you? Damn it. I told you that was a bad idea."

"I needed to talk to her. But that's not the point! You left my sister with a social worker and you didn't tell me about it!"

She swung her legs off of the lounge chair and sighed. "Yes, Bellamy. I left her with a social worker. But he's a damn good one, okay? I met him after this one time when my dad threatened to send me off to boot camp after he found out about that naked neighbor on the roof. I wanted to know if he could actually do something like that...anyways, my point is...I trust Lincoln, okay? You should, too."

"Trust him? I don't even know him!"

"You don't have to trust him. You just have to trust me. I swear I would never put your sister in danger. I'm having Lincoln watch out for her because I know my dad is trying everything to find us, and he'll do just about anything to get his way. Lincoln is the one person out there not afraid to put him in his place." Alessia lifted herself from the beach chair and took off her glasses to stare into his eyes. He got lost for a moment, suddenly realizing that a half-naked Alessia Kane was standing in front of him with the light shining down on her hair. He shook the thought out of his head and watched as she smiled softly at him, a smile that would make anyone weak at the knees. "You _can_ trust me, you know."

Bellamy put his hands on his hips and looked up to try to get his mind off of her standing in front of him. This was bad. Very bad. He came downstairs with every intention of berating the hell out of her for doing something so rash, but all he could think about was the fact that twelve hours ago she was begging him to kiss her. He clenched and unclenched his fists a few times before sighing out heavily.

"I trust you." The words felt weird coming out from his mouth, but he meant them nonetheless. She smiled and touched his shoulder playfully.

"Good. Now go get your bathing suit, Blake! I haven't been in a pool since I took combat swimming lessons as a kid!"

Alessia walked past him and he couldn't help himself. He looked back to inevitably stare at her from behind, because that was just something he was unable to control. He watched longingly as she sat down on the concrete beside the pool, dipped her feet in, and then graciously slid her entire body into the water, dunking underneath for a few seconds. He sauntered over to the edge to see her bob back up, smoothing out her hair as she lifted herself from the water. He smiled and she grinned from ear to ear while wiping her eyes free of the chlorine. Her doe eyes stared up at him with a playful gleam sparkling in them.

"Don't you want to come in?"

Bellamy stared down at her, the beads of water dripping from her face and coating the skin that was exposed to the outside air. His lips twitched as he thought about how easy it would be to go upstairs, get his bathing suit on, and come down into the pool with her. Then, another thought crossed his mind. He knew he wouldn't be able to control himself being in the water with her. He might have been able to resist everything he'd been feeling earlier, but at that point, he just couldn't stand to be in situations like what she was proposing. Not when he knew what had happened the night before.

"Actually..." He swallowed thickly. "I don't think so. Do you mind?"

Alessia knotted her eyebrows, confused. "You're not still mad, are you?"

"No, Alessia. I'm not mad."

"Then what's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong. I think I'll take a run on the beach instead."

Her eyes widened, and she looked more concerned than offended. "You're serious? It's like a hundred degrees out here! Are you actually insane?"

"I came here with you, didn't I?" he answered coyly, to which he earned a beautifully timed eye roll.

"Suit yourself."

She sighed and fell back into the water, reveling in the coldness against her skin. He stayed a half a second longer to watch her, but then forced himself to walk away. Damn it, he really did need to run it off. He knew how hot it was and how sorry he would be afterwards, but he didn't care. He went back up to the room and changed into some gym shorts anyways, but thought ahead enough to leave the shirt at home. Bellamy grabbed his phone from an untouched compartment of his bag and plugged his headphones in, scowling when Scorpion's "Rock You Like a Hurricane" turned out to be the first song on his playlist.

* * *

Once the lunch bell rang, Clarke ran so fast to the football field, she thought her legs were going to fall off. Her lungs ached as she ran faster, but she knew she had to get to Raven. This wasn't her fault. Or, maybe it was. But regardless, she never wanted Raven to get hurt. That was the last thing on her mind.

When she reached the bleachers, she saw Raven staring off into the distance, laying down comfortably with her eyes narrowed at the sun. She picked at the orange in her hand, but she seemed so disinterested and, to be honest, just... _lost_. Clarke's heart broke. This was never supposed to happen.

Clarke said nothing as she walked down the bleachers and came up to Raven's side. Raven knew she was there, but she didn't move. Her eyes didn't even follow Clarke to look at her. When the blonde loomed above her brunette, olive-skinned friend, she looked down at her with nothing but pure, unadulterated remorse. Carefully, Clarke sat down. Raven flinched, visibly.

"Raven..."

"Save it, Clarke."

"You have to know. I never meant for anything to happen, it just...it did. I thought you were broken up."

At this, Raven's head snapped to the side so she could look into Clarke's eyes with an ice-cold look. "What? So that makes it okay?"

"No—"

"I can't hear this." Raven turned herself from Clarke and shook her head. She took off a piece of her orange and chucked it. "Just go, Clarke."

"Raven—"

"I said go!" Raven locked her jaw and, when Clarke realized that there was nothing she could do to repair the damage she caused, she was forced to leave. As she did, all she could think to herself was: _how did I manage to fuck all of this up?_

* * *

By the time she heard Bellamy get back into the hotel room, she had already been up in their suite for an hour drying her hair off from all the chlorine in the pool. She had taken off her wet bikini bottoms and changed them out for shorts, but left her top on and fit a loose-fitting button down shirt of hers over her shoulders to make it look more appropriate. She was assuming they would grab something to eat and do something interesting, but Bellamy hadn't shared his plans with her.

He came back sweating bullets, the wet stink dripping down his bare chest. When he walked inside the room, he took out his earbuds just in time as Alessia heard the door slam and exited the bathroom to see him.

"Bellamy?"

"I'm back," he assured her as he tossed his phone down on the bed. He was sweating so much that it was hard to really focus, and therefore he didn't see Alessia staring at him from the bathroom, completely at a loss for words. She didn't think it someone sweating so much could be so attractive, but there he was, in all his bad-boy glory, standing shirtless and sweaty in the middle of their hotel suite. She tried to swallow the feeling down her throat as Bellamy's eyes slowly drifted up to meet hers. As he caught his breath, he asked obliviously, "How was the pool?"

"G-Good. It was good. How was your run?"

"Very...liberating." Bellamy stared at her for a long while, and she stared at him, too. They both stood in silence for a long period of time until he took in a deep breath and gestured to her clothes. "You getting ready for dinner?"

"Yeah, I just have to finish drying my hair. What else are we doing?"

He slipped off his shoes and sat down on the bed with a hum. "I don't know, it's up to you. We could go to the bar down the beach..."

Alessia scoffed. "Are you kidding me? I'm still getting over that bitch of a hangover from last night. I think I'm gonna go sober on this one."

He smiled up at her. "Wow, that's certainly a change of pace. Okay...well, how about we just go for dinner in the town and then we can figure it out from there?"

She nodded, not having to say much more. After she turned back into the bathroom, she switched on the dryer to finish off her hair. Not long after, Bellamy lifted himself from the bed and walked over to the bathroom threshold, where he leaned against it and watched her as she blow dried her hair with her head upside down. Noticing his feet, she flipped her hair back up and knotted her eyebrows at him. "Do you need something?"

"I need to shower, Alessia. I stink. There's a half bath in the other room for you to dry your hair in." He smiled at her politely, and she nodded in agreement. Alessia reached over and unplugged the dryer. She grabbed her hair brush and slipped past him into the suite while he walked into the bathroom and shut the door so he could shower. Sure enough, seconds later, she heard the water running.

 _Pull yourself together, Kane,_ she chastised herself while reaching down to grab her makeup bag and walked to the other room, shaking off the weird feeling she could feel brewing in her stomach. She finished off her hair within the following minutes and subsequently refreshed her makeup just as fast. The sun began its descent in the sky as she walked out of the half bath and Bellamy walked out of the connecting room, freshly dressed in a pair of shorts, flip flops, and a t-shirt. His hair was wet, but he was still running a white towel through it to dry it faster.

"You ready?"

"Yeah. You?"

"Two seconds." He ran the towel through his hair again and then draped it over a chair in the corner so it could dry. Then, he looked up at her with a grin. "Come on, let's go."

With that said, they left the room and went to dinner. The hotel was only two blocks away from the center of town, so they walked into one of the nearest restaurants and sat down for a meal full of glorious seafood and a live rock band playing in the background. As Alessia dug through the lobster they ordered, she looked up at Bellamy with a coy smile.

"So, what's the deal with you?

He caught her gaze. "What do you mean?"

"You...Octavia..." Alessia trailed off, and Bellamy dropped his eyes quickly. "Obviously you're her guardian. What happened to your parents?"

He dipped his lobster into some butter and stared at her while he chewed it. Alessia didn't say anything, she just waited for Bellamy to respond to her question. After a while, he shook his head.

"This trip isn't about me, remember, Kane? What about you? You were with PFC Mercer for a long time, right? Why'd he just up and leave like that? I didn't know the guy for long, but he didn't seem like a flight risk, so to speak."

Alessia wanted to go back to talking about him, but she realized Bellamy wasn't ready for it, so she sighed. In all honest, she wasn't really ready to talk about this subject, either.

"It's complicated."

"Everything about you always is, Kane." Her eyes moved to find him focused on her while he grabbed his beverage. "Try me."

Her tongue ran along her teeth as she thought about what to say. She could lie to him, like she lied to all of her friends before. But for some reason, at that specific point in time, she just didn't feel like bullshitting. So, she told the truth for once. Her response was nonchalant, hiding the pain that she had buried inside of her.

"The LTC had him sent to prison." Bellamy choked on his Blue Moon and looked up at her with broadened pupils. All she did was nod and grab a piece of calamari from the basket beside them. "You weren't wrong when you said I was trouble, Blake."

"Your dad had him sent to prison...because you were sleeping with him?"

"No, that wasn't it. Although I'm sure the fact that we were together really pissed him off." Alessia rolled her eyes. "You know, my dad has always had a problem with me being in relationships. Every time a guy got remotely close to being permanent in my life, he's either paid them off or shipped them out. I'll tell you what, it can really mess with you actually."

Although the music was loud around them, Bellamy could hear her loud and clear. He could also detect the sadness in her voice. After a moment of processing her confession, he straightened and cocked his head at her. "Damn. I was wrong, wasn't I?"

Her eyes caught his as she cocked her head slightly. "Wrong about what?"

"You're just as fucked up as I am." Alessia chuckled under her breath and leaned back in their booth, cautiously picking at the lobster in front of her. Bellamy watched her quietly, and then a few moments later he took in a deep breath and looked up. "So I'm guessing he was sent away because of whatever you did that's paying me three hundred grand for this little adventure?"

"Nothing gets past you, does it?"

"Rarely. What did you do to get all that money, Kane?"

This was the question she was dreading. She didn't want to tell him, but for some reason she found herself not wanting to hide it from him, either. But sure enough, their waiter interrupted them to ask about their meal. When he was gone, the moment fled with him. They finished their meal and walked outside just as the sun was setting behind the water. Bellamy looked around the town life, oblivious to Alessia, who was staring at the sunset, calm and quiet over the ocean waves.

"So what do you want to do, Robin Hood? You don't want to drink, which doesn't leave us with many options..." He trailed off as he turned his head to finally observe her watching the sunset. When she heard the silence, she broke her gaze to look over at him, in somewhat of a fixated trance.

"Hmm? I don't know, what do you want to do?"

He hesitated for a moment, but then nodded to the beach. Bellamy urged her with him, his hand locking around her wrist and dragging her down to the shore. Alessia laughed as they came to a stop on the sand, where both of them removed their flip-flops and began to walk on the beach. Rarely anyone was taking their same leisure walk, except for the senior citizens that walked hand-in-hand down the romantic setting. Neither Alessia nor Bellamy mentioned how uncomfortable they felt walking side by side, like a real couple.

"I'll have to admit, it's pretty amazing. Even for me." Alessia broke her gaze at the sunset to look over at him, realizing that he was staring at her. He quickly removed his eyes and nodded.

"It is."

"It's weird, the sunset looks different when you're not watching it set over a bunch of bland, uniform buildings out in the middle of nowhere. I saw a sunset a few days before we left, too." Bellamy cocked an eyebrow, as if he wanted to hear more of the story. Alessia swung her flip flops in her hands and laughed. "It's a cheesy story, Blake. I'm sure you don't want to hear it."

"If it's cheesy, I'll mock you. No big deal." He grinned, causing her to scoff at him. He waited, though, for her to tell the rest of the story, but he found that he didn't really like what she had to say. Alessia took in a deep breath and explained.

"The dorm building at the base...the roof has a great view of the sunset. Calix and I went up there a few times. The last time was just a little before everything happened. We used to stay up there from sunset to sunrise. It was...um, nice."

Bellamy was thoroughly disinterested, up until the last part and subsequently turned away from him to look over at the sunset again. He frowned and shrugged to himself.

"It was nice? That's it? It seems like a hell of a lot more than 'nice'."

He was fishing. She knew that. However, there was something about him that made her want to confess her deepest secrets. She knew, deep down, that it was dangerous for her to be feeling that way about someone, but she didn't let it get to her at that moment. Maybe the beauty of the sunset finally got to her head.

"I don't know. I just..." Suddenly, she stopped them in the sand and unconsciously reached out, touching his arm to bring him to a stop. They faced each other and, despite the connection that they both felt upon their contact, she continued. Their eyes locked and they both froze in place. "Do you ever feel like you're _stuck_? Like you're thoroughly unhappy when, really, there's no reason to be? You have everything you want, but there's just something missing. Something...something important that's missing from your life and you can't seem to get your hands on it. Do you ever feel like that, Bellamy?"

He pursed his lips and thought about it—not because she asked him to but because he hadn't really thought about it before. But he could feel it inside of him; he felt it when he came onto the base and he could feel it as she mentioned it to him. It was like she practically read his mind. Behind her, the sun was already beneath the horizon and the sky started to turn a darker hue. In that specific light (in any light, really) she looked perfect. He found it hard to answer her, fighting the lump in his throat. Eventually, he managed.

"Sometimes," he admitted. They started walking again and she smiled softly, sneaking a glance at him. Her voice was nothing but a whisper.

"It sucks, doesn't it?"

"It does."

"I'll let you in on a little secret." Alessia grinned widely and fit her arm through his, leaning closer to him. He let her, although he could smell the strawberries again and became acutely aware of his lack of self control. "Alcohol helps! A lot."

Bellamy snickered and looked over her. The two of them were suddenly aware of how close they were, but instead of showing his discomfort, Bellamy grinned. She, in return, tried to keep herself in line. He leaned just a bit closer, intent on ruining her the way she'd been ruining him all day. "Hmm. Interesting. Is that why you're such a bad drunk?"

Alessia gasped and stepped back dramatically. "I am not!"

"You are." She rolled her eyes as they walked. At this point, the sky had darkened almost to the point of blackness. Still, there was some pale blue tracing the sky. "Tell me, Robin Hood."

"Tell you what?"

"What you did. How you got the money." Alessia looked at him with a raised eyebrow and he only returned it with a pointed glare. "Come on. You can trust me, you know."

"Ah." He could see her crack a small smile while she bowed her head, trying to come up with the answer he wanted. She shifted uncomfortably, but for some reason she found herself wanting to tell him. No secrets. It was strange, she knew that, but it didn't stop her from sighing and trying to explain to the best of her ability. "Look, it's...complicated, okay? Calix and I took the money from my father but...but it wasn't just for kicks or whatever. That money wasn't Kane's to begin with. And we donated over seventy-five percent of it to charity. The money I have now is what's left over from what we put away for when I graduated, so we could leave Arkadia and live a comfortable life."

Bellamy hesitated as he tried to process her words. At this point, the sky above them turned a darker shade of blue, dimming near close to night. The waves curled in one by one, soft and slow beside them. No one else was walking the beach as they did, their feet sinking in the sand. At last, Bellamy spoke.

"He sent Calix to prison for it instead of you." Alessia looked over without an answer, but he didn't need one to know that was what happened. Therefore, he continued. "So what do you plan to do about it?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, who are you going to talk to when we get back? To try and get Calix out of prison? Kane was doing something illegal, Alessia. There's got to be proof that the money was illegal and once you find it, you can find someone that can't be paid off and get your boyfriend out of jail." But despite his logical suggestion, she turned away from him towards the open ocean. His know-it-all look dropped on a dime. "I mean if it sounds like a bad idea..."

She snapped, looking right into his eyes. "I may despise my father, Bellamy, but that doesn't mean I want him to spend the rest of his life in a jail cell."

"You would rather Calix take the fall?"

"That's not what I'm saying." Her jaw hardened, and he could see that it was not a subject matter to reckon with. He softened as her look grew colder and realized abruptly how stupid he'd been. Alessia Kane was not one to take commands from people, let alone about her most personal matters. He screwed up, but it was too late. She continued on, coming to a furious stop. "My father is not a cakewalk. I know that. But there were good times, okay? Times where he didn't throw me into scaled-back black ops simulations to prepare me for enlistment. Times where he wouldn't get drunk on my birthday because he knew that in two days would be the anniversary of my mother's death. There were good times, okay? I promise."

The two of them didn't speak, the sounds of the ocean waves crashing into the shore the only sound behind them. In the distance, they could hear the faint music from the lively Hamptons club. Bellamy stared at her and realized that the hard look he had formed on her face turned on a dime as she spoke the words, almost to where he could hear her voice breaking. Soon, she broke eye contact with him and looked down at her toes in the sand, remembering the good times with her father. But she remembered the bad times more clearly, which was a major problem. Bellamy could see the saddened look that crossed her face, and in an attempt to help her out, he took in a deep breath and decided to break a personal rule of his.

"I know what it's like to have a parent that seems to keep screwing up." Alessia's eyes wandered upwards to find Bellamy staring off into the distance, recollecting his own memories. He turned his gaze towards her and locked eyes again, this time less intense than before as he forced the words off of his chest. "My mom was at work for almost twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week in order to feed me and Octavia. When she wasn't working, she would try to find a guy that could take care of us. It didn't matter if she loved him, just as long as he was able to provide for us because at the end of the day, after working four jobs, it still wasn't enough. When I was thirteen, I got a job at a Christmas tree farm to scrape up some extra money for us. I ended up making around thirteen dollars, but when I found out that my mother was too broke and exhausted to get Christmas gifts that year, I spent it all on a snow globe for Octavia, one of those cute department store types with Santa and his reindeer in it. It was the first Christmas I remember Octavia...happy. No thanks to my mother, who I later found out had spent all of that money buying pot, which is where most of our money had been going. She died of breast cancer five years later, after I found out I got a scholarship to USC. Full ride, too. But Octavia was only twelve at the time, so since I had to take care of her, I turned it down."

"I'm so sorry, Bellamy." He removed his eyes from hers but didn't acknowledge it. "What about your dad?"

"He was Aurora's high school sweetheart. They'd never gotten married. After Octavia was born, he ran off with his boss's outrageously rich wife." Bellamy looked back down at the girl in front of him to realize she was staring at him the whole time. He smiled down at her, shaking his head. "You look so invested. Calm down, Robin Hood. I took care of O like a good brother, and she's better for it. We're better for it. I don't need your pity."

Alessia protested immediately. "It wasn't pity, Bellamy. I'm actually...impressed."

He cocked an eyebrow. "Did I just get the Alessia Kane stamp of approval?"

"I think you may have."

"I can die in peace."

They laughed together, the sound of the ways crashing against the shore again. But this time, something was different. The atmosphere changed a bit, from playful to serious on a flip of the coin. They both were staring at each other unintentionally, neither one of them realizing their participation in the exchange. It was like there was a physical force between them that drew them together, but at the same time, both of them were pulling away. Bellamy was the first one to break it.

"We should get back to the hotel." He looked up at the black sky and the pier, breaking contact with her. She felt almost violated, like he had ripped a little piece of her away. Almost immediately, he began to walk away, and she didn't understand it one bit.

"Bellamy!" she shouted. With his back turned to her, he gritted his teeth and stopped in his tracks, knowing that he had to be normal, or otherwise it was over. He tightened his grip on his flip flops in order to prevent himself from giving into the temptation. He could feel her come up closer to him from behind. "Bellamy, seriously."

He spun around. "Yeah?"

She looked at him, confused. Her head tilted to the side just a bit and the wind blew forth, tossing her hair behind her shoulder. "I-I don't get it. I...don't get _you_. What is going on here?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean. Everything has been really weird since I came home drunk last night." Alessia crossed her arms, holding her flip flops out of her chest uncomfortably. "Did I do something? Because if I know myself, I probably did. And I don't need that to come in between us."

Bellamy took a moment, but then scoffed under his breath. "There is no 'us', Alessia."

"That's not true," she argued pointedly. He looked elsewhere, trying not to give into the temptation again. For God's sake, she was only a year or two older than his sister. But not even that, she's Marcus Kane's daughter. She's a thief. She's a criminal. She's a heartbreaker.

"I...I don't know what to tell you, Alessia! Nothing happened."

She stepped forward, causing him to take a step back. She ignored his moves away from her and continued to step forward, urging, "Tell me."

"Nothing."

"Bullshit!"

"I'm not bullshitting you." Both of them stopped where they were, and Bellamy kept his eyes focused on hers as she narrowed them, almost challengingly. She took a step forward, cautiously, but he was inclined to stay frozen.

"Then prove it. Stop moving away from me." She took another tentative step forward, but he didn't move back again. It was like before, where she had him completely entrapped. He could feel her moving in on him, closing the gap between them until he could almost feel the warmth of her skin on his.

The smell of strawberries overwhelmed his scent again. The brush of her fingertips caused an electric shock on the surface of his skin.

At last, he couldn't handle it anymore. He would be damned if she were going to taunt him one more time.

Without warning, he reached forward and wrapped his hand around her head, bringing her lips to his almost animalistically. She was taken completely off guard, stumbling into his arms as he kissed her with every fiber of his being. He dropped his sandals on the ground and wrapped his free hand around the back of her head, pulling her closer. She did the same, the flip-flops landing at their feet. Her arms went around the underside of his arms, around his torso, and clutched at his back to press his body against hers.

Her head started to spin as he kissed her harder, like he had been going over it in his head thousands and thousands of times and had perfected it before even touching her lips. He, too, was amazed at how good it was. His hands twisted in her hair as he pulled away once, twice, and a third time, continuing to kiss her in short breaths. Eventually, as they heard the tides wash up the shore a few feet away from them, Bellamy pulled her down onto the dry sand with him. He fit himself on top of her, one of his sweaty hands sliding down from her face, over the thin fabric of her top, down her torso, around her hip, and to the back of her thigh. He pulled her tighter against him as they kissed desperately, ultimately forgetting the fact that they were on a public beach.

"Bellamy..." she trailed off as he broke away from her mouth to kiss down her throat, but she wasn't entirely sure if it was a moan or a protest. His lips brushed over the tops of her breasts, and she choked back a real, unadulterated moan. There were grains of sand getting stuck in her hair, but at that moment, she seemed to forget entirely that it would take days to wash out. Finally, she found her words. "H-Here? You want to do this here?"

He quickly scanned around them and met her eyes, full of lust. "There's no one around."

"I know but—" She was silenced when he dipped down to kiss her again. Who was she kidding? This wasn't even the most public place she'd had sex before. Her body involuntarily rocked beneath him, desperate for closer contact. As a result, she felt him moan quietly inside of her mouth, and from there on, she forgot all about being on an empty beach where anyone that stepped outside could see them. Her leg wrapped around his hip and she rolled them over gently so that she was sitting on his lap. Bellamy straightened up more as his hands wandered down and around her stomach, pressing deep into her skin until they finally reached the drawstring to her top in the back. As she felt him fiddle with it, she broke away again, this time with a laugh.

"Now _that's_ going to get us into some serious trouble if someone walks by, you know."

"Your shirt will cover it." He smiled up at her as he felt the strings come loose at his touch, and she obliged him, lifting the top off of her chest to set it aside. Just as he wrapped his arms around her with another kiss, they both were forced away when a bright light appeared next to them. When they both looked up to see a flashlight in their eyes and a dark figure behind them, Alessia screamed and fell off of Bellamy, who quickly pulled her shirt closed and turned back to the shadowy figure, putting his hand in front of his eyes to stop the blinding light and find out who was behind the other end.

"What the hell?"

"Were you two about to engage in sexual intercourse on a public beach?" a grumpy voice asked, unamused with their situation. Bellamy knew exactly who it was: a cop, of course. He let out a defeated sigh.

"Of course not..." Alessia tried, but she knew it wouldn't work. The police officer switched off his flashlight and put his hands on his hips with a look of pure disapproval on his face. Alessia reached over and grabbed her bikini top, making sure to keep her button-down as tight as she could against her chest. The cop sighed at the two troublemakers beneath him.

"Alright, you two. Get up. We're going down to the station."

* * *

"Lieutenant Colonel Kane. Sir?" Marcus looked up from the work on his desk to find Shumway standing in front of him, a file in his hand. Marcus looked between the paper folder and Shumway's timid look. Kane really did hate dealing with people of no confidence.

"Yes, Commander Shumway?"

"I-I think you need to take a look at this, Sir." Shumway put the file on his desk, and Kane glanced over it. It was a phone call log for a number he didn't recognize. He looked back up at Shumway with a raised eyebrow as the Commander stayed quiet.

"Well...what is it?" Kane leaned back in his chair, annoyed. He had more important things to do, like find his daughter, who could be dead in a ditch somewhere and he wouldn't know. God, this whole 'parenting' thing was hard.

"We've been tracking Octavia Blake's phone calls like you asked, Sir." Shumway crossed his arms behind him and lifted his chest. Kane leaned forward again, suddenly giving Shumway his undivided attention. "That's her call log for today. Look at the top caller, Lieutenant."

Kane's eyes wandered down to the log, where he saw the highlighted number, an unidentified one with the area code from the Hamptons. There was no specific address, but they didn't need one. Marcus's eyes turned up to question Shumway.

"This is from the Hamptons."

"Yes, Sir."

"Does our new guest have any friends in the Hamptons?"

"No, Sir. Not that we can tell. To be quite honest...she doesn't seem to have many friends at all. Other than her brother, no one really called her before they moved into Arkadia." Shumway shrugged, almost as if he felt bad for the friendless teenager. Kane smiled.

"So that means this is from her brother." The wheels in Kane's head continued to spin. Shumway nodded and watched as his boss leaned back in his chair and tapped a pencil against his fingertips.

"Yes, Sir. That's what we're assuming. And I know you've been speculating that Alessia is with Private Blake, so I came to ask you if you want a team deployed to the Hamptons. We can search the city's hotels in two days, maximum."

Kane opened his mouth to say yes, but before he did, he seemed to have an even better idea. As he stared off at the sunset behind him, the wheels began to turn again, this time with fervor. A smile overcame his lips and he looked back at Shumway with a shake of his head.

"No, Commander. I have a better idea."

* * *

 **Thanks for reading! Please review!**

* * *

 **narelclollie:** Thank you! Yeah, I though that scene was cute too :) Hope you liked this chapter and thanks for reading!

 **Guest:** Aw, thank you! Here's the next chapter, and I hope it answered your question! Thanks for reviewing!

 **peachy48:** Haha awesome! Thank you so much! I really tried to make sure that they maintained the same personalities and that it was pretty accurate just so it would make it more interesting to read. Cage will pop up some other times, too. Thank you so much! Here's the update, I hope you enjoyed it!

 **Mimi:** Thank you! Here's the update! Hope you enjoyed this chapter.

 **Mimi:** Aw, no problem. It is really hard and I try to make room for it and sometimes it doesn't work out (i.e. this hiatus) but I do want to make sure that all of my fans will get something once in a while. Thank you so much for reviewing :)

 **Mimi:** They posted :) I had to approve them (sometimes I get guest posts on some of my stories that are repetitive and sometimes don't make sense, so I make sure to vet them before they go up) but I approved most of them, it'll just take a while for me to get on the website to do it. Thanks so much for reiterating that and here's the chapter! Thanks for all of your reviews!


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